Spyro, Son of the Ape King
by Ultimate Rising Phoenix
Summary: For years, since the war wagged by Malefor, the purple dragon, the other species mistrusted dragons, including the apes. However, things might have a chance to change when Gaul, king of apes, finds and adopts a purple dragon egg that hatches into a young purple dragon, who the king of apes names Spyro, and starts to raise as if he was his own son. What does fate holds for Spyro? AU
1. The King and The Hatchling

The world has always been a place where everyone could live in peace, and it was a good place for everyone.

However, things like that did not last forever, and it all came to change in the day that Malefor assumed the power.

In the past, the dragons lived in peace with all the other races, but Malefor, the purple dragon, did not agreed with this. In his condition as a purple dragon, the most rare and powerful of all kinds of dragons, he believed so powerfully in the superiority of the dragons over all the other creatures that he believed that it was their right to rule over all of the other creatures.

So, using from his charisma, and his amazing powers, Malefor assumed the power and crowned himself the king of all dragons. Soon, he started to change the peace that had once reigned over the land, and he moved armies of dragons against all the other creatures, aiming to spread the power of dragons to all the lands and to have all creatures under their power. Anyone who dared to defy him paid the price with death.

Whole regions were devastated, races were taken prisoner and some of them enslaved, and no one was safe from the army of Malefor. The dragons, who once were a symbol of peace and honor, became something that was to be feared and taken as a symbol of tragedy, and that was how their fame spread across the lands, as Malefor moved on with his campaign of domination.

Many had fallen and became trapped under his domain, but some of them resisted. There were some who were powerful or clever enough to find ways to avoid having their lands falling in the claws of the dragon army. Alliances were forget in order to protect the people, and some people who once were known for being pacific had to quickly learn to fight, become warriors and form their own armies.

Among them, were the apes.

For a long time, the apes had their own business, and never got too involved nor worried with the dragons, but the advances of the armies of dragons forced the apes to abandon their tribal rituals, and come together as people and get ready to the fight. At first, they were with little to no chances, they were slaughtered in numbers of hundreds, and their hope was diminishing every day more and more, until the hope appeared for them in the form of a leader.

A leader named Gaul.

* * *

"Don't give up now!" A big, blue-furred ape screamed at the apes who ran by his side. "We must protect or lands! Show the armies of Malefor that we will not go down easily!"

Gaul was a big ape, much bigger than a regular ape, and he was wearing a purple-colored armor, and a big helmet with big horns. In each of his hands, he was carrying scimitars, which were his preferred weapons, and they were both covered in some blood, from the dragons that Gaul was already forced to battle.

All around, apes were branding their own weapons, and all of them were fighting flying creatures, which also had armors of their own, most of them silvery colored with the timbre of a dragon's head with three horns. Some of them were breathing elements as they looked at the apes. One was breathing fire, while other was breathing frozen air, while other was breathing an arc of electricity into them.

Dragons were known for their elements. Each dragon had one, and it changed according to the kind of dragon, representing the color of their scales. There were dragons of fire, ice, electricity, wind, water, earth, and many more elements. That was what made the dragons be so efficient in battle and also what made them be so dangerous. Still, that did not discouraged Gaul. Not when the future of his whole people was landing on the shoulders of the big ape.

He simply continued to roar orders and encouragement to his army, as he leapt himself in direction to the battle, ready to take on a last stand for his people and for all in which he believed.

The battle raged for a few hours and, surprisingly, the apes were actually showing themselves to be able to win. The dragons were killed in a good number, and the apes showed considerably less loses, and soon, the après were being able to do something that they had made a lot in the past months, and something that, a few years ago, would be considered impossible: they were forcing the dragons to retreat.

Soon, the groups of dragons were retreat, as the leaders telling their solders to move aside once they saw that the martial skills of the apes had grew very much in the last months, due to the guidance of their leader. They had grew to a point that it was no longer that easy to confront them, and that group of assault was forced to retreat in order to save their lives and to avoid more loses. They all were flying away, aiming to return to their troops to recover.

"Yeah, you winged lizards!" One of the apes screamed at the fleeting dragons, who were soon disappearing at the distance. "Go back to the purple lizard with your tails between your legs!"

This was only one of the many cried that the apes gave to the fleeting dragons, and soon, they were cheering for yet another one of the victory that they had over the flying lizards, showing off that their abilities of elements didn't gave them the right to take them, and that the apes would never give up their lands and their freedom or surrender to their cruel ruling.

* * *

"To Gaul! Our king and leader!" One ape cried out as the others all cheered with him, and they continued to cheer, some of them very drunk, both with their victory and with the alcoholic beverages that they were taking, now that the battle was over and the dragons had fled back to their own lands.

Gaul was looking at the distance, smiling to himself, as he was able to forget the throbbing face of his head.

However, he winced slightly as the pain sting in again. He took a hand to his face, and rested it into the piece of cloth that now covered the place that once had been his left eye, and now was an empty socket, due to the attack of a dragon during the fight. The big king of apes had lost one of his sights, but it was only another one of the many scars that he was sure that he was going to have in order to defend his land and his people.

He sighed as he looked at his armor, discharged after the battle was over; exposing his furry chest, which now was covered in some bandages. His scimitars were left aside too, both of them still covered in blood from the dragons he had killed. Gaul winced as he looked at the bloody blades, and he sighed to himself as he remembered himself just how brutal battles could be for everyone.

However, his attention soon was broke as he heard a loud scream filling the air.

He immediately jerked his head at the direction that the scream had come from. He could not tell very much about voices, but that one surely did not sounded like the one of an ape.

This suspicious was soon confirmed as a young ape quickly came from a place, and he screamed to everyone. "Kallag found a group of astray dragons!" He said as if to get the attention of someone. "He is killing them!"

Gaul's eyes widened, "Oh, no…" He spoke to himself as he immediately got back on his feet, forgetting of all of them pain in his body as he was now running to the direction from where the kid had come from. He was not sure of where exactly was it, but it was not hard to find out, he just had to follow another scream, which now he recognized as the voice of a dragon.

He rushed, not caring to the people who were coming right on his trail, other apes, like him, as he just wanted to arrive in there before it was too late.

He could now hear more clearly the voices.

"Do you like that, you winged iguana?"

"Stop, please stop!"

"Don't let them escape!"

"NOOOO!"

Gaul was panting as he was running as fast as his tired and wounded body could carry him, and he was able to arrive into a place where he met a horrid scene.

A group formed by nine apes was killing a few dragons. They were only four of them, being that two of them were already dead, and they had serious wounds in their corpses, which looked like they had been mutilated. There were only two alive, and this was quickly reduced to one as one of them was killed having his throat sliced, as he was trying to say something that, to Gaul, sounded as if an "I surrender!"

His eyes were widen in horror, as he looked at the last dragon alive, a dragon who was limping, dragging himself at the ground as another ape was walking to him, with a wicked grin in his face, and have a bloodied spear in his hands.

"No! Please, I surrender! I surrender!" He said, practically begging for his life, the ape only smirked wider at him, before thrusting the lance forward, and spearing the dragon right in the heart, making him let out a loud and wheezing gasp.

"No!" Gaul screamed, "Stop it now!" He demanded, and all the apes stopped, and looked at their leader as he rushed to the last living dragon. The ape with the lance, who had crimson colored fur and amber-colored eyes, simply removed his lance of the wound, making it gush blood, as he simply looked at Gaul.

The big ape simply ignored him, and kneeled in front of the dragon, which open wound leaked blood. He wheezed as he looked at Gaul, and he even tried to say something, but it came out choked and unintelligible, and them, he simply went limp, his face turning to the side as all the light left his eyes.

Gaul just stood there, kneeling at the dragon, who had been killed with such cruelty like that, and he could only look at him as the feeling of shock was replaced by a feeling of grief for that poor soul. However, it was soon replaced by another feeling. One that was directed to the one who was, the most likely, the responsible for that cruelty.

He looked over his shoulder at the apes, who looked at him scared, save for the crimson one with the lance, who simply looked casually at him. "My king." He said, with a salute, as if he had not just killed four dragons. That, in turn, only made Gaul even more furious.

"Kallag." Gaul snarled at him, showing off his teeth, "You are the responsible for this?"

"We found them hiding." Kallag, the crimson ape said, "They were soldiers and our enemies, and so, we had to treat them as enemies. We just did what we should do." He said, as if he was saying something very reasonable. Gaul, however, was not taking that crap.

"They attacked you?"

"They were going to, no doubt." Kallag said to Gaul, who looked back at him with almost a murder shine in his eyes. "We just finished them off before they had the chance."

"This one was surrendering!" Gaul demanded, now not making any effort to hide his irritation.

"Really?" Kallag said, using a cloth to clean up the blood from the blade of his spear. "Well, I couldn't quite hear him well. You know that all that dragons say sound like snarls to my ears."

This was Gaul's turn to give his own snarl, as he got back to his feet and advanced against the crimson ape. All the other apes yelped and stepped back when they saw their leader and king walking with that furious look in his face, save for Kallag, who stood where he was, looking only slightly impressed, as the king stopped when he was very near him, looking down at him right in the face.

Gaul snorted at him, and he simply looked back at him, he was not smiling anymore, but his look still told that he was feeling confident. He looked at him, and he asked, "What happened to your face?" He was obviously talking about the cloth that now covered the place of the missing eye. Still, Gaul couldn't care less about it, as he simply looked at him and he said, his voice snarling with anger.

"I ordered to all the dragons who surrendered to be taken prisoners, not killed." Gaul said, and he seemed ready to pounce at Kallag and strangle him. "I made it perfectly clear, and don't you say that you forgot."

Kallag looked up at him, and he spoke confidently. "We don't know if they really plan to surrender or not. They might simply pretend to surrender and attack us as soon as we give them our backs." He said it matter-of-factly, as if it was an obvious thing. "We simply take ahead and kill them before they have the chance. Besides…" He looked at the tip of his spear, swinging it across the air slightly. "I mean, it is not like _they_ would offer us any mercy if we surrendered."

Gaul snarled at him, and the apes took another step back, but Kallag remained firm, and he looked up. "You know, I find it strange that you are so keen on showing mercy to these blasted lizards." He spoke, and his tune was one of almost disgust. "It is almost like you forgot all that they already did. They killed many of ours! So, what is wrong with us doing a little payback by killing a few of these beasts? And also, I think you should be happy for seeing some of these things get killed after what just happened to you. It was one of them who took off your eye, right?"

He was asking it as if it was a perfectly natural thing, and the way he asked that to Gaul was almost a mockery. The bulky blue ape had to clench his fists so hard that his claws were actually digging into his palms, in order to hold himself back not to break the crimson apes jaw with a well-placed punch. "The war is horrible." Gaul said, his voice slightly shaken with anger, but he remained as composed as it was possible, as more apes were arriving and seeing the scene, seeing the dead dragons and quickly understanding what was going on.

"We all lost things and we all are carried by the brutality." He spoke "We all lost something in the war, and we all get wounded, and is truth, that some enemies may not show mercy to us, no matter the circumstances, but this is no reason for we to throw away or honor and decency!"

Kallag looked at him, and Gaul seemed really mad as he looked at the crimson and smaller ape. "This is one more time that you disobey my orders, and I'm already sick of it! From now on, the next time a dragon offers surrender you will accept it and take the dragon as prisoner of war. If I hear that you disobeyed my orders one more time, I'll order you to be arrested!"

Gaul said that in a tune that gave absolutely no mistake that he was talking very seriously about it, and that he was not kidding. All the apes who were looking were his witnesses, and Kallag simply looked back at him, with the same ferocity as Gaul himself, and he spoke, "For someone who was supposed to be our leader and help us defeat the winged lizards, you seem to care too much about them."

Gaul knew that it would be no use discussing with Kallag, and if he tried, he could very well end up strangling him I front of everyone. He knew that he had been clear enough for Kallag and that all the ones around were going to confirm it, so the crimson ape would no longer have an excuse, so, Gaul simply turned around to leave, and as he was walking away, he heard Kallag's voice.

"Don't worry, Gaul!" He said, "You won't listen of me killing dragons again unless it is in the battlefield."

Gaul knew that he was supposed to feel better, but for some reason he didn't. Maybe it was because he knew that, coming from Kallag, this probably meant that he was not going to let the word of what he did get to Gaul's ears. It was very likely, once the crimson ape had a serious thing against dragons, and that he would jump at any chance of killing one. Gaul noticed it in the first days that he joined their forces.

Many enjoyed having him around for he was one of the best warriors that many of them had ever seen, including Gaul. He knew that, despite the disadvantage of the size, Kallag was one of the few apes who could actually keep up on a fight with him and actually have a real chance of winning. Still, Gaul asked himself if it was worth it, for Kallag was one of the most violent beings that Gaul ever met in his life, and he was very inclined to kill dragons with little to no provocation. Gaul did what he could to correct this kind of behavior in all the apes who worked under his command, and he was sure that some of his army at least agreed with Kallag's point.

Many had lost a lot when the dragons started to attack. The apes surely were no exception to this, and they had lost a lot during this few years of war that the dragons had wagged under the orders of their new purple king.

The dragons had once been a very proud and noble race, and now they were fighting in name of domination and mercilessly, and that was a hard blow to everyone, who now saw the dragons as threats and as dangerous creatures who could attack you in the moment you less expected. Gaul knew that many thought like that about them now, and he could see that not only in Kallag, but also in many other apes of his own army, not to mention many fugitives and survivors of other races that had been attacked and conquered by the dragons. They saw them as monsters that should, most likely, be slain before they could hurt anyone else.

Gaul, however, was among the ones who thought differently.

He had always grown up with stories of dragons, and he even had met some of them in the past, before this whole madness had began. He knew dragons to be majestic creatures, that they were the defenders of the lands, and that they were great beings of power and wisdom that made the world a better place for everyone to live.

Sure, many heard these stories when they were younger, and that was why they considered the actions of the dragons such a terrible betrayal. Gaul, however, saw way past it. Gaul knew that, despite their good nature, the dragons were living beings, like all the others. Therefore, like all the other beings in this world, there were individuals who held darkness inside their own hearts, like Malefor.

The purple dragon was a cruel tyrant, who had come to power by making use of plots and of his own powers. Malefor was the one who assumed the control and corrupted the dragons to act as his hand, covering the world until he had all of it held in the tip of his claws, so he could do whatever he wanted.

Many saw Malefor as the symbol of what dragons had become, and they thought that all the dragons were like that, as wicked and cruel as their ruler, but Gaul knew well that a ruler did not reflected its entire people. He knew for he had heard many stories of a few dragons who he met who had escaped from the lands in order to avoid being captured. Malefor was cruel not only with other creatures, but with other dragons as well.

He had imprisoned and executed many dragons who had dared to oppose openly to his way of ruling, and he was no stranger to incarcerating innocents who dared to defy the laws that he had set up. People around the lands saw Malefor as a symbol of the dragons' wishes, but Gaul saw past it, and he saw Malefor as what he truly was: a tyrant who hungered for power, and was willing to go against all the most sacred laws of his race and of his ancestors to do so. An ambitious being who cared only for power and for nothing else, and who would not hesitate a single second in giving away the lives of anyone who was under his rule, dragon or not, to see his selfish wishes attended.

Truth was, in Gaul's eyes, the dragons themselves seemed to suffer as much as any other creature for having Malefor as their king.

Malefor was controlling their laws, and he practically owned their lives by using the fear as a weapon of control. He was now forcing the dragons to adhere to his new ways, and this way, he was poisoning the minds of the younger dragons, so they would share of his philosophies and of his cruel ways, and take them as truth, so Malefor would not need to use of fear to control them in the future.

Malefor was a disgrace to the dragons of the past, and Gaul knew it pretty well, he was acting like a monster to everyone at the same time that he forced the dragons themselves to sell his image as a great hero and a savior, who was helping the dragons to grow and to become more powerful. Gaul despised it. He despised everything about Malefor and the way he did things, and he felt sorry for the dragons who were make to comply with his commands and orders.

Still, it seemed that most people didn't thought the same way he did, for they were only caring about the way the dragons were attacking them, after being defenders of peace for so long, and the pain of the betrayal was too great, because of the many things that were lost in the clashes: lives, families, lands, belongings, freedom. Malefor, who now used his own race as a toll of conquer, was taking all of that and, as a result, everyone now was seeing the dragons as monsters.

Gaul sighed to himself, at the same time that he frowned deeply, as he wished that there were anything that he could do to change people's opinions about it, and he tried, but he had failed, for they all were too focused on their own suffering, and that was not little.

Gaul walked out of the place where the last clash had occurred, and he walked now in direction to the woods, entering into it and, as he went deeper and deeper into the silent woods, no one followed him.

Good. Gaul wanted to be alone with is thoughts.

The night had already put itself in place, as the sun had set not too long ago, and the first stars of the night had just appeared. Gaul looked up, being able to see them from where he stood with his only eye.

He grumbled as he rubbed his face. He would take a while to get used to having only one sight.

Well, it was probably one more of many scars that he was still going to get if this war lasted any longer, anyway, and by what he knew about the new king of the dragons, it was actually pretty likely that the war _was_ going to last quite a while.

Opening again his right eye, now the only one he had, Gaul looked at the starts above. Well, at least he could still enjoy the beauty of these little things, even if one single eye. He sighed to himself as he simply relaxed and enjoyed that beautiful view.

As he looked, Gaul could see a few shooting stars passing by the sky, and his mind went back to the times in which he was just a little chimp, alongside his grandfather, that told to him about the stars in the sky.

He told to young Gaul that the stars looked back at their world from up there, and they only moved for certain special individuals. Usually for people who were important, or who were destined to make great changes into the world, good or bad. Sometimes they fell from the sky for some creatures, whoever, it was far more common for them to fall for the dragons, since the dragons were the most powerful and noble beings of that world. He said that, each time a dragon was born or died, one star fell from the skies, signaling either the loss of a valuable life, or the arrival of a new valuable treasure for the world.

Gaul sighed to himself, as he missed the old times. Gaul even asked himself if some star had fallen in the night that Malefor broke free from his egg. If the star was signaling the things he would do and the changes that the purple dragon was going to bring forth for the world. If it predicted the horrible things that he would do to the world and to his own kind, and all the destruction and the pain he would create in his quest for power.

The dragons were once a symbol of good and purity, now, more and more people were taking them as nothing but bad owes. That profoundly hurt Gaul, once he was not going to allow himself to forget all the beautiful and amazing things that he always heard about dragons. No. The dragons were not monsters. They were noble creatures who were put in this world to protect it from the evil and to ensure the future of all the things that lived, walked, flew, swan and crawled in it, and no evil dictator, insane and thirsty for power, would ever change that. At least, not to Gaul.

Even though Gaul was, like many more, forced to take on the arms to protect what he loved. Even if he was forced to take the lead of the apes, and teach them all how to fight and even to kill the dragons in order to protect what they held dear. Even if he was himself wounded by dragons who would most likely kill him in name of their new cruel king. Gaul knew that, in his mind, he would always see the dragons as that symbol of hope and the promise of a brighter future.

As Gaul let these thoughts wander in his mind, it seemed as if the world around him was disappearing, until he loud sound, like the snapping of a twig, brought him back to reality.

Immediately, the big ape put himself in attention, looking at the sides, as his hands instinctively traveled to his waist, where his swords usually were resting, it was a reflex that he developed in these times of war. However, he only realized that he had left his two swords back at the campsite when he found nothing but the leather of his belt and the fur of his own body in there.

Gaul would have cursed himself for forgetting his weapons, if it was not for another sound of a twig snapping calling his attention back. This time, Gaul was sure that it was closer. Gaul forgot completely about the swords, after all, it would not be the first time that he had to face an enemy only with his arms and claws.

"Who is there?" Gaul called out to the woods, to the direction from which the noises had come, "Show yourself!" He demanded, there was a long silence following this, and then there were more sounds.

Rustling of leaves.

Twigs snapping.

Whatever it was, it was big and it was moving, as if it was circling all around him.

"Stop playing this game!" Gaul demanded loudly, looking at the place in which his sharp senses and instincts could tell him that his stalker was. "Come out and face me now or I'll go to you!"

That was an ultimatum, and Gaul made sure to leave it perfectly clear to whoever it was and who seemed to be playing games with him. There was another silence, before the stalker started to move again, but no more moving around, instead, it seemed to be going in direction to Gaul.

The ape bared his teeth, and stood in attention as the figure was coming to his direction. The proclaimed king of the apes was in fighting stance, ready to defend himself in the case it was an enemy, and soon, the figure came out of the vegetation, and it completely surprised Gaul, making him drop his instance.

It was a dragon. However, who looked at this dragon could easily tell that it was not there to fight anyone in name of anyone.

This dragon was a female, and she was with white scales and a golden colored underbelly, with golden horns and wing-membrane and her tail ended into a scepter-like tailblade. She surely was a beautiful figure, but her appearance was not of the better. She had wounds, scratches and bruises in great part of her body. Her scales were dirty with mud, dust, and dried blood that had leaked from her wounds. She seemed to be limping into her left hind leg, and she had one basket into her forepaw, covered by a grey-colored blanket. She looked back at Gaul with blue eyes, which were full of pain and fear.

"Please… don't hurt me…" She managed to breathe out, seeming that every word consumed great part of her strength. She looked as if she was ready to faint from all the pain and the tiredness, and this, of course, made Gaul forget all of the worries about the war and about anything else, as he immediately started to go in her direction, to offer her help.

She got scared, and tried to back away, but the pain in her leg made her wince, and she was about to fell to the ground, before Gaul used his strong arms to support her, and to help her lay gently into the ground.

"Who did that to you?" Gaul asked, "What happened?" He said, as he checked on her wounds. She looked back at him, with her eyes still full of fear and pain, but still, she looked back at him with intelligence, evaluating, and she was going to see that he was genuinely worried with her.

"T-they attacked us." She said, managing to say a few words. "T-they were going to destroy it… I-I had to run, I could not let them…" A heavy coughing access cut off her speech, and she started to cough up blood, which stained the green grass under her mouth.

Gaul felt a terrible sense of dread running in his body as he could see her wounds more closely, and he realized that they were worse than they seemed from a distance. It was amazed that she was still able to move at all, yet carry a basket with her.

"Don't talk now." Gaul said to her, as gently as he could, "You need to save energy."

However, Gaul knew that it would made little difference now if she talked or not, Her body was severely damaged, and if she did not received the green healing crystals soon, she would most likely not live very long. Gaul remembered that his henchmen got some of these among the spoils that they got from the defeated dragons. A few of them surely would save her.

"You need health crystals; I'm going to get some." Gaul said, and he assured her, "I'll be right back, I promise." However, as he was about to leave, he felt her claw wrapping around his wrist, and he looked back at her, as her eyes, filled with pain, were pleading to him.

"Stay…" She managed to breathe to him "Please, stay… I don't want to die alone."

Gaul looked back at her, and soon, he found himself in a dilemma. She knew that she was going to die, and Gaul knew that too, by the severity of these wounds she had. She wanted him to stay, but if he stayed, he would be able to do absolutely nothing but to make her company and to comfort her as her final time arrived. If he did left, he could get the crystals that could save her life, but, he could take too long, and her wounds were too severe. She could very well pass away as he was away to get that what would save her. Worse than that, she would die completely abandoned and alone. Like no one in the world, good or bad, dragon or not, deserved to die.

Gaul looked at her for a while, pondering his options and his decision, and after she said a last, "Please… don't leave me alone." Gaul finally made his mind, and he decided what he would do.

He kneeled by her side, and he used his hands to cup her head, and to help her lay more comfortably. He was going to stay with her until the end. He was going to make her company during her final moments.

"It will be okay." Gaul said to her, as gently as he could. "It is all going to be okay."

She looked up at him, and she said, "My child."

This left Gaul slightly confused, when he remembered the basket that she had been bringing with her. He looked at it, as it was still in the ground. Using one hand, he picked up the basket and brought to closer to him, while his other hand still held the head of the poor, dying dragoness.

Once it was close, Gaul removed the blanket covering it, and he felt glad that he had kneeled, because otherwise his legs would probably have gave up on him and he would have fallen to the ground.

In the basket, was a dragon egg, as Gaul was already expecting. However, what made Gaul shocked was the color of the egg in question. Dragon eggs had each had a specific color, as specific as the colors that each dragon had, depending on their elements. The color of the egg symbolized the color of the dragon that would be born at it, and its element, inherited from the egg's parents.

What made Gaul surprised about this egg was the fact that it was not white like the mother, or any other regular color that Gaul could expect. Gaul even wondered for a moment if it was an optical illusion cast by the light of the blue and red moons of the sky. However, as he could take a very good look into the egg, there was absolutely no way of mistaking it. It was not effect of light, nor some kind of disguise, and not even Gaul's mind playing a prank on him.

The egg was purple!

And if the egg was purple, there was only one logical conclusion that Gaul could come to…

"They wanted to destroy my egg." The voice of the dragoness brought Gaul back to reality, and he looked at her. "My only child… I… could not allow it… I took my egg and escaped… before they could…" She could not finish, as she had another coughing access, bringing more blood to leak from her mouth.

Gaul didn't know what to say or what to do about it. He only looked at her, and back at the purple egg, wondering just who wanted to destroy the purple egg and why. Well, the most logical would be that people would not want another purple dragon around, since only one of them had already caused too much trouble, and so, the people from other species did not wanted to risk having another purple dragon around to make things worse than they already were.

However, Gaul was far from discarding the idea that Malefor would have ordered the destruction of the new purple egg. Purple dragons were rare, and taken at very high regard due to their ability to wield all of the elemental powers. That was the main reason why Malefor was so powerful and why no other dragon dared to defy his ruling as king. Another purple dragon would have the potential to match Malefor in power, and to dethrone him. Gaul would not be very surprised if he found out that the purple king had ordered his guards to find and destroy the egg as soon as he heard about it, to avoid having another purple dragon to threaten his position.

Gaul would actually expect that for the tyrant. Still, he was very worried as he looked at the egg, and back at the dragoness, who seemed about to die as she coughed more blood into the ground.

Gaul could not help but be amazed by her strength and her bravery. She had to run away from whoever was able to do it from her while protecting her egg, and went to the middle of the area in which the war was raging, risking to be found by another group of dangerous being that could not hesitate into killing her and destroying the egg. She forced herself to keep moving even though her wounds would made many other dragons with twice her size drop to the ground, unable even to move. Gaul wondered if that was the power of the motherly instinct, which was universal among all the living creatures.

"I had to be sure my child was safe." She spoke, being able to mutter strength to look up at Gaul, and to continue to speak. "I couldn't let them do it… It is just a baby… It does not deserve to die only because…" She once again had another coughing access, bringing forth more blood. Gaul had to hold her head slightly up to help her breathe better, and he gently comforted her.

"Relax, it is okay now." He said to her, as gently as it was possible. "You are safe now. You two are safe."

She looked up at him, and deep inside his eyes. For a moment, Gaul had the feeling that she was looking more than just his eyes, he felt like she was looking inside of them, and deep into his soul. After a while, she smiled at him, and she said, "You are a very good man."

Under normal circumstances, despite the war or anything else, Gaul would have become flustered with this kind of compliment coming from a dragon, however, now he was into a situation that would not allow that, once he was with his focus in the poor dragoness, and the very little time that she had of life. Not to mention the fate of her poor egg, which was going to lose the mother before it even had a chance to live.

"I have a last wish… for you." She said top Gaul. She knew that she was going to die, and she had already faced and accepted this, Gaul could see in her eyes, and he felt truly sorry that he was not able to do absolutely anything to help her, but to listen and maybe to try to realize her dying wish.

"What is it?" He asked, she looked up at him, and she said, with her weak voice.

"Please, take care of my egg."

Gaul looked at her, taken back by this request, once he had not expected it to come from that dragoness. Not now that the war was ranging over. He only looked back at her, and at the purple egg, and then, he felt something landing in his own hand. He looked back at the dragoness, who was looking at him, with a claw in his hand gently, her eyes were pleading to him.

"Please… I know of the war, I know what dragons did to apes and to everyone else, but I don't care… My child can't survive out there. They will kill it if they find it, so I can't trust anyone else…. Anyone else would have killed me and destroyed my egg for its color, but you…" She raised her paw, and gently touched his face, as she gave a smile to him. "You helped me, and you offered to help during my last moments… You showed kindness to me even with all that has happened… You did not tried to destroy my egg once you saw its color… Despite all the war that rages over, you are not tainted by anger, hate, or by spite… you… truly are a good man…"

She looked deep into his eyes, and she said, "I want… a man like you… to take care of my child… to care for it and to make sure that it is safe and sound… I'm sure that my child will be okay with someone like you caring for it… so, as my last wish… I ask to you… to take care of my child…"

Gaul was speechless as he looked at her. His mind was a fuss as he wondered all the possibilities that could come from this. Gaul knew that many of his followers had bad opinions about dragons, and even more about the purple ones, some of them even questioned his decisions because he showed compassion to a few dragons. What would they say if Gaul returned with a purple dragon egg, and said to them that now it was his personal responsibility? Nothing good, and that was for sure. Gaul was actually already imagining what Kallag was going to say and actually do about this whole situation. It was potentially a disaster, and Gaul could only imagine what kind of proportions that disaster could take.

His mind was take away from the subject as he felt the grip of the dragoness tightening around his paw, as he looked back at the dragoness, who was looking up at him with pleading eyes. "Please… my child needs someone to care for it and look after it… please… this is my last and only wish… please… take care of my kid…"

This was a desperate wish, and Gaul knew that. She knew that she was not going to live, and she had no one else who she could trust. He was her only option, and Gaul knew that pretty well. Still, she was talking it as if she could ask it to anyone else, and she decided to ask to him, and only to him, as if she trusted in him more than in anyone else in the whole world.

This was what made Gaul have doubts about his own doubts. He looked at her, and at the purple egg, ands back at her. He took a few moments to find his voice again. He finally was able to look her in the eyes, and he said, "I-I… yes… I will take care of your child. I promise."

At hearing that, she smiled at him, and she said, "Thank you." She sounded and looked happy, relieved, as if a great burden had been taken off her shoulders. Immediately, she wheezed one last time, and finally, she closed her eyes, as all the movement stopped, including her breathing.

It was so sudden that Gaul got scared. He looked at her, as if he was searching for any sign of life, but he found none. Her breathing had stopped; her heart was no longer beating, as Gaul couldn't find any pulse in her. He took almost one minute to realize that she had indeed died, and for him to accept that she was gone.

It was like she had lived only enough to make sure that her child would be safe, and then, she could finally rest and let her soul travel o the place where she would be going, which according to the belief of the dragons, was the far realms, with the spirits of the ancestors. Gaul took a few moments to recover his mind as he looked at her, and he finally was able to make sense of all that had happened.

He looked over to the basket in which rested the purple egg. An egg that, right then and there, had become his responsibility. Gaul never imagined that something of the like once he woke up in the same morning. He could only stare at the purple egg, and back at the dragoness, who now wasn't breathing as he rested her head in his hands. Gaul knew that this was not something that he had planned, however he knew that now it was very much his reality.

Resting her head in the ground, Gaul made a silent prayer at her, and he hoped that, whatever greater forces were up there, or anywhere else, would welcome her and make her finally have some peace. Gaul wished to give her a proper burial, and to that, he had to go talk to his armies. Of course, that would bring him the problem of explaining the egg.

Gaul looked at it one more time, and he approached the basket and the egg. Gaul picked it up, and he looked at it as the light of the two moons illuminated the egg. He wondered just how much that egg would actually affect his life, and he actually wondered if he was actually going to be able to keep the promise that he made to the dying dragoness. He knew that, in the current situation, living among the apes would not be the safest kind of life for that little dragon.

But, on second thoughts, in the current situation, there would actually be little kinds of life that would be safe for the poor little thing once it hatched, and Gaul was very much certain of that.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound that sounded like something cracking. Gaul was a little startled, and he looked around, when he heard the sound again, this time a bit louder. Gaul took a few moments to realize that the sound was coming from his own hands.

Actually, form the little purple thing that was on his hands.

The egg was hatching.

Gaul looked at the egg, as cracks formed into the shell as it was breaking, and the small hatchling in there was now fighting to escape its confinement.

Gaul could do nothing more than to watch as the egg broke more and more, the cracks expanding and getting together as the egg was losing its ability to stay whole. Soon, one piece of the shell broke, and fell to the ground, being push out by something. It looked like a blunt horn, golden and very small.

Gaul looked at it as the hatchling to which the horn belonged continued to push against the shell, aiming to break it and to see the outside. Soon, effectively, more cracks appeared, as the egg was breaking apart to free the small resident into the world and the fresh air. It took a few minutes before the egg finally had broken enough so it was possible to get a good glimpse of the small creature inside of it.

Gaul could look at its little face. It was purple in color, and decorated with golden horns, and Gaul could see that the underbelly was golden too. The small hatchling squeaked as it continued to fight against the shell, freeing more of itself, and soon there was an opening in the side of the egg, which allowed Gaul to take a better look at the purple hatchling.

It was small and very fragile-looking, as it was to be expect from a newly hatched baby, and it was all purple with golden underbelly and tiny white claws in its little paws. Gaul even was able to catch a glimpse of between the hatchling's legs, which confirmed to him that the small creature was a male.

The small hatchling moved as the shell was no longer a problem, but still resting its body into what was left of the shell of the egg, as it breathed the fresh air of the outside from the first time. It sneezed softly as some dust came into its nose, and it moved its paws, as if trying to learn how to reach its nose.

In this process, the young dragon baby started to open his eyes, revealing to have amethyst colored eyes. It blinked a few times, the world in a blur, as its eyes were greet with the light for the first time in his life, and the hatchling noticed something that was right in front of him. It was big, and it was taking up most of the space in his vision.

The small creature blinked several times to clear its vision enough to take a good look at the creature in front of him. Many would be scared when suddenly having a big, mean-looking ape, especially if this ape had a bloodstained eye patch covering a missing eye, while the other was wide in surprise.

The small hatchling, however, had just been welcome into life, and he was far too young and to naïve to grasp some concepts; like fear, danger, and threaten. So, that big creature was nothing scary or anything of the like, being the first thing he saw in his life. Actually, as the purple dragon sighted the creature, its instincts immediately started to work, as he immediately recognized the first living being it saw as its parent.

Gaul could only look, as the young draggy looked at him, and soon, he was opening a goofy smile, and letting out a very happy squeaky sound as it looked at him, with a shine in these amethyst-colored eyes.

In the moment Gaul saw this, he found it just the cutest thing he had ever seen in his whole life. Suddenly, all the worries of the war, of the rest of his clan, of the whole situation, they all seemed to vanish in the moment Gaul saw that adorable smile. Then, for the first time in the last days, Gaul was actually able to smile. A true smile, free from all the worries and all the other things that could happen.

Gaul could only look at that cute dragon that almost seemed to be giggling at him. However, at some point, his mind had to go back to the hatchling's mother, dead right by his side, and to all the worries that plagued him, from the war to his own troops. He looked at the young dragon, who was far too young and too innocent to understand all these problems, even if Gaul tried to explain to him. For a brief moment, Gaul felt envy of the young dragon, who had simply nothing to worry about, while Gaul himself now was in a position in which he would take all of the worries in his place.

Looking over, Gaul looked at the dead dragoness, and gave her a silent prayer and the guaranty that he would keep his promise. Then, he moved back at the basket, and put the hatchling back in there, along with all of the shell that the young dragon wasn't able to break. The small draggy continued to chirp and squeak at him, as Gaul covered him with the blanket, and was taking the basket in his arms, looking back one last time, and sighing as he walked back in direction to his camp.

As he walked past the forest, and back in direction to his camp, the young draggy looked up at him and chirped as he was in the basket. Maybe it was to call up Gaul's attention, and it worked, for Gaul looked at the basket and to the little dragon from time to time, to be sure that the little thing was okay, and this made the young dragon smile back at him and chirp more.

Gaul liked that, however, as he saw himself getting closer and closer to his camp, he knew that he couldn't simply walk in there with a dragon in plain sight, at least, not until he had the chance to explain the whole story to everyone. Until then, he needed to, at least, keep the young dragon hidden.

He stopped, and looked at the young dragon, and he said, "Look, I need to keep you hidden now." He looked at the young dragon, who looked back at him. "I need you to be as still and silent as possible until we arrive in my hut, okay?" Gaul was sure that the young dragon was too young to understand him, but he felt a bit more secure as he talked to the young dragon as if he could make it clear and the young dragon would cooperate.

So, Gaul covered the basket with the blanket, and made sure that it was well protected, before he started to walk back to his camp. As he walked, he was quickly greeted by other apes, most of them were worried that he had been gone for so long into the forest, but the proclaimed ape king assured them that he was okay, but he put them in pair of the dragoness that he had met and who died, but he omitted the egg and the young dragon, of course.

"Gather a group and go to retrieve the body; she deserves to have a proper burial." Gaul said, and the young ape saluted him.

"Yes sir… by the way, what there is in the basket?" he asked, looking up at Gaul, who looked at him and at the basket, which hid a very important little thing, and he said, "I… gathered a few fruits along the way. Before I met the dragoness, I mean…" He said defensively, hoping that they apes would buy it.

"Oh, right." The ape said, and he and the other ones started to leave, when a chirping sound came from the basket, what made them stop and Gaul's blood run cold.

"What is that?" Asked the young ape, and Gaul had to think quickly to come with an excuse.

"Oh! That, huh… It was me! I sometimes make these strange sounds when I'm really sleepy. I guess I should go to my hut to rest for a while, please tell the others that I don't want to be disturbed for the rest of the night." And with that, Gaul left quickly for his hut, hoping that the lie he gave was convincing enough so they would not want answers.

Gaul rushed in direction to his hut, and he thanked to any and all gods up above when he was finally able to reach it. Gaul closed the curtains of the entrance, and he made sure that no one was nearby to hear or to peek into the hut, before he finally took the basket to the corner, and placed it over the bed.

Gaul removed the blankets to reveal the young purple hatchling, which had been flip on his back by the rush that Gaul had caused at going to his hut in hurry. The young dragon was trying now to figure out how to flip back to his feet, while he looked at the big ape with the big and purple eyes.

"That was very close, little one." Gaul said, helping the purple draggy back to his feet, and the young purple creature chirped and squeaked in answer, giving one more cuteness onslaught that Gaul could not help but completely fall in love with.

The ape was only glad that he was able to be back at his hut, where he could take some time to think of some better way to explain the whole situation to his troops. He was able to actually smile and relax a little at the young purple dragon. The purple thing continued to make some funny things, as if to calling the ape to play with him, until the young thing started to look tired, and started to yawn.

"You look tired, little one." Gaul said, picking him up, "I think you better rest now, you have been through a lot."

As if on cue, the purple draggy started to get snuggle with the arm of the big ape, and after a few moments, the small dragon was breathing slowly, into a sound and easy sleep, as the small wings and tail twitched into the rhythm of a dream. Gaul looked down at him and the smile in his face widened a little more.

Gaul knew that now he was the responsible for that little purple thing, and that it was probably going to bring him a lot of problem, but still, he found himself simply unable to think anything bad of the situation then and there, with the little mass of purple scales snuggled up to him, small, cute and so very fragile. People always said that dragons were charismatic, and that it was impossible not to love them, and right at that moment, Gaul was feeling very much inclined to believe in that.

Still, the blue ape was far from relaxing, for he had to keep a watch and to keep his senses very much alert and attentive to everything around him. He knew that he would have lots of trouble if someone came in and found him with a purple dragon hatchling snuggled up on his arm. He would need something much better than feeling tired to be able to explain that to anyone who caught him in there in the act.

Gaul continued alert as he looked at the entrance, and he let the young purple dragon rest in his arm, as Gaul kept is watch, just like a dutiful father protecting his youth. Gaul was a man hardened by the few years of war, and he had already passed by much worse than a single night of not sleeping. He was able to keep his watch for days in a row if needed, and he planned to, if that meant keeping that young dragon safe.

Gaul barely noticed the hours passing; to him they were like minutes, as he kept all of his senses sharp at the same time that he kept his mind focused in other subjects. He was aware of nothing and everything at the same time. It was a very good trick that he learned long ago from his uncle, whom was a very skilled hunter famous for hunting prey by wounding, following and waiting.

Gaul only was call back to reality as the small purple dragon started to move, and started to make noise. A LOT of noise.

Gaul looked at the small thing, as it was letting out clearly needy squeaks and chirps, and this made Gaul look down at him.

"Hey, what is wrong, little one?" Gaul said, as if he really expected the hatchling to understand him. But the small thing only continued to chirp and squeak loudly, and Gaul was now starting to become worried that the excessive sound could attract the attention of people in the outside.

"Shh. Hush, little one, you are gonna get caught, we both are shhh." Gaul said, worried that the sound was going to put them both in trouble. The baby continued to chirp and squeak, and at a certain moment, Gaul winced as the small hatchling started to bite in his arm with his baby teeth, and he was biting a little hard.

It took a few moments to Gaul to be able to connect the dots and to be able to figure out what was bothering the poor little thing. "Oh, I see, you are hungry, aren't you?"

The small dragon chirped loudly, and continued to bite at Gaul's arm, as if he was trying to get any form of sustenance, that his instincts told that would do good to his aching tummy. The poor little thing was suffering from hunger for the first time in his short life, he did not liked the feeling, and he wanted it to go away.

Gaul looked at him, and around, and now, he cursed himself for not having brought any food and for not having it at hand in his hut. Gaul knew that he couldn't leave the poor baby all alone to search for food, but also, he could not simply take him outside to take him for the food, once the baby would make a lot of noise because of his hunger, and even if Gaul hid him with the blanket into the basket, the noise would most likely inform everyone of his presence. In addition, the idea of forcing the newly hatched baby to starve simply because it was convenient was something that Gaul would not even consider as an option.

After a lot of thinking, and a look into the poor, pleading eyes of that hungry hatchling, Gaul finally made his mind, and he decided that the poor thing needed food, but taking it with him would be too dangerous. So, the best course of action would be to leave the small thing in there, in his hut, where he would be safe.

"Okay, little one, I have to go now to look for some food for you." Gaul said raising the small hatchling with his hands and looking him in the eye, as the small dragon looked back at him curiously. "I'll be out for just a little time and I'll be back with something for your tummy, and while this, I need you to stay here, hidden and quiet, until I come back. Don't make any sound and try not to get into trouble, okay?"

Gaul didn't even waited for an answer, he simply put the small hatchling in his bed, which was at the same level as the ground, used the blankets to prepare a makeshift nest, and he put the hatchling inside of it.

As his hands left the hatchling, it started to chirp and to squeak, wanting the touch back. However, Gaul knew that he could not have the hatchling with him as he searched for food; it was too dangerous. "I'll be back soon, I promise." He said, as he turned around to leave, and walked away, and the small hatchling continued to chirp loudly, wanting to have him back.

These sounds broke Gaul's heart, but he knew that he had to think rationally as he took his next decisions. Besides, he was sure that he would take only a few minutes to find food and come back. It would be quick and it would be safe, and Gaul only had to take care and say that he wanted a bite before bed if anyone asked, and everything was going to be all right.

He just needed to be careful and nothing could go wrong.

* * *

The small dragon continued to chirp, as his big parent moved away from him, leaving him alone. The poor hatchling was suffering enough with the ache on his tummy, but now, he had the problem of not having his parent by his side to watch him. He was now completely alone, and he did not like this feeling.

 _I am here! Come get me! I don't wanna be alone!_

The small dragon chirped loudly and many times, to try to get his parent to come back and to care for him. However, the parent was taking too long, and was not coming and answering to his calls, and this only made the small hatchling feel bad for being alone.

The hatchling called for a while, until it decided that it was not going to work. So the hatchling decided that it didn't wanted to wait for the parent to come back. It wanted to be where the parent was.

So, if the parent was not coming to him, he would go to the parent!

Slowly but surely, the hatchling started to move his legs, and it was new to him discovering how to use them and how to properly walk. His instincts helped him, of course, but still, the best he could do was give clumsy steps as he tried to keep his balance, at the same time that it tried to walk, as if to find out the parent and discover where it went.

The first thing the little male hatchling did was to climb into the nest that the parent made for it, and to get to the other side, which it did by clumsily climbing up it and dropping into the outside.

Once this task was done, the next thing he did was get back on his feet, and then, it started to go into clumsy steps around the small space that his parent had brought him. Once he looked at the place in which the parent had disappeared into, the small creature walked in direction to it, with its clumsy baby steps.

After a few moments, the hatchling finally arrived and went past the curtains that blocked the sight from the hut from the outside. It was officially its first adventure into the world, as the small creature looked around, and saw the earth, and he saw something glowing, and he saw the sky above, with the two moons casting their glows into the sky.

It was all beautiful, and it would capture the attention of the young creature. However, he had little time to worry about these beautiful things. He needed to find his parent, and he needed to find it quick. He didn't wanted to be without his parent. He could barely form rational thoughts just yet, but still, he knew by instinct that he couldn't be left alone for too long, otherwise it would not be good.

He continued to stumble as he walked in, without a clear destination as he simply walked around, searching for traits of its parent. All the new feelings and sensations got by his baby senses bombarding his mind as he searched for any specific clues that would lead to his parent, so they could be together again.

The feelings were new and they were intense, like the smell that was coming, and the sound of voices of beings that the small hatchling was way too young to recognize or understand, and so, he simply continued to walk. All these new feelings were making it hard for the young mind to focus, once they were too many new stimuli at the same time, and that was making his young and tender mind confused as these feelings overwhelmed him. He shook his head as he walked, and continued to stumble as he walked his baby steps, but he was surely making progress, for he was already a bit far from the place where he started, even if he had no idea if he was actually closer to finding his parent.

Of course, since he was into this near haze from the overload of feelings it wasn't surprising that he would not see very well where he was walking. He bumped into something.

The hatchling yelped as he backed away and landed in his butt, rubbing his snout. The hatchling suddenly felt a very strange feeling, as if he was not safe. He looked at what he had hit, and he saw that it was some kind of leg furred and crimson colored.

The baby had a feeling of danger as he looked up, and saw that the leg belonged to a creature that was very similar to his parent, however, this one was definitely not his parent. This one was smaller, and also, it looked different, and it was staring down at the young dragon with a look of pure hatred in its amber colored eyes.

The small hatchling didn't even had time to run as the creature lowered a clawed hand in his direction…

* * *

Gaul had just picked up the last part of what he would need to feed the young dragon. Just some pieces of roasted sheep, not very much, since the young dragon could not eat that much. Still, Gaul had picked up a generous portion, for he wanted to be ready in case the young dragon would wake up again hungry, as he knew that babies could eat a lot.

Luckily for Gaul, no one asked him why he would take this food to his hut, as many of them didn't wanted to argue with their leader, and so, Gaul was already ready to go back to his hut and to the young dragon who he had left alone in there.

He was already on his way, when he noticed what seemed to be a commotion of apes ahead of him, all of them gathered in there, and they all seemed to be agitated.

Gaul looked at them, wondering what was the whole fuss about, when another ape, a young one, came running in his direction.

"My king…" He said, panting as if he had run a lot. He seemed as if he was trying to recover his breath to say something to Gaul.

"Hey, hey! Easy now, young man. Deep breath." Gaul said, and the young ape obeyed, taking deep breaths to recover, but still, he seemed in a hurry to tell Gaul what was going on.

"My king…" He spoke, having recovered a little. "It is Kallag!" He spoke, and immediately Gaul felt worried, and soon, it turned into a freezing horror as the next words were said. "He found a baby purple dragon, and he is going to kill it!"

 _No!_ Was the thought that rang into Gaul's mind as he dropped the sheep he had been carrying and immediately rushed to the place where the apes were gathering, barely minding the young ape who he had just been talking.

He soon arrived there, and he saw many apes gathered in there as a crowd. Due to his bigger size, Gaul had a very advantageous spot to see over their heads, to exactly what they all were looking at. What he saw was making his blood run cold.

Kallag was standing in the middle of all the apes, inside a circle, and in one hand, he had a dagger, while in the other, a familiar shape that was squirming and crying out loudly, as if calling for help.

"My friends! This is the symbol of our suffering!" Kallag said to the crowd as he held the young purple dragon high, who chirped loudly and whined, squirming as it seemed to be scared out of his mind. While the young dragon was too young to understand concepts of death, it knew very well by instinct when something was a threat to his small existence. He didn't liked that thing, it made him feel bad, and the way it held him was hurting.

"Now, what should I do with it?" Kallag asked, as he looked at the young dragon in his clutches, and a smirk formed in his lips. "What about I cut out one member at a time?"

The crowd roared at him, as if they were actually agreeing with what he was saying! Gaul, on the other hand, was completely horrified. He started to open his way among the apes, aiming to reach Kallag before it was too late.

"Yeah, it will be good!" Kallag said, now his eyes into the small hatchling, who was wailing in fear. "One member at a time! Now, which member should I cut out fir-"

But Kallag never had a chance to finish his speech, for in that moment, a blue fist collided with his face, sending him back in direction to the crowd, at the same time that another hand snatched the young purple dragon of his clutches.

Kallag barely knew what had happened as Gaul simply stood there, panting and with a look of pure despise at Kallag, while the young dragon was now held securely in his arm, trembling in fear like a leaf.

Kallag soon recovered, and looked at Gaul, soon, he was getting up, and snarling. "Gaul, what is the meaning of this!?"

"You will not hurt this dragon!" Gaul snarled back at him, "I won't allow!"

"You are protecting a purple dragon now!?" Kallag said, his voice sounding with anger and betrayal "What is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with me!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!?" Gaul roared, making every single ape around flinch, including Kallag. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH _YOU_!?"

Gaul looked at Kallag, and he looked at all the apes around, and he said, "From today on, this purple dragon is under my protection! If _any_ of you try to hurt him in any way, you will have to answer to me! Am I clear enough!?"

He looked around, and all the apes looked at him, none of them saying a word. Gaul shot a glare at Kallag, who looked at him with a look of almost hate, however, the crimson colored ape said nothing, and Gaul took it as a good sigh. He walked away, the apes around opening space, since no one dared to stand on his way when he was as mad as he was looking then.

Gaul walked back at his hut, and closed the curtains, and he looked back at the young dragon, who was trembling and whimpering in his arms. That was surely not a good way of starting your first day into the world, and Gaul knew it very well. He felt now terribly guilty for letting it happen to that poor young dragon.

"Shhh, it's okay." He said, as gently as it was possible, as he hugged the purple dragon gently against his chest. "It's over now, they won't hurt you. I won't ever let anyone hurt you, I promise." Gaul said as he continued to hug the poor young dragon, who was still trebling for a good while before he finally had calmed down enough…

* * *

In the morning, Gaul had just companied the burial of the dragoness who had trusted her egg to him. He paid his last respects to her as he stood in front of her grave, the young purple hatchling still clutched in his arms.

As soon as it was finished, Gaul once again returned to his hut, and now, as he carried the young purple dragon with him, he was receiving all kinds of looks from the other apes, most of them from fear and doubt for that young purple creature. And sure, a look of pure scowl coming from Kallag, who still had his face swollen and blackened from the punch. Gaul knew instinctively that the crimson ape was still going to make a lot of noise because of that, and he knew that, from that day on, he should not leave the purple dragon out of his sight for too long.

Soon he was back into his hut, with another ape companying him. Gaul finally was able to rest as the young purple dragon was eating some sheep, ripping out small pieces with his very small teeth. Luckily, Kallag had not harmed the young one, what the ape king was extremely thankful for.

Gaul would never have forgiven himself if he had allowed any harm to befall that poor little soul.

"So, the mother trusted the young dragon to you in her last moments?" The ape asked Gaul, who looked back at him, and simply nodded. The ape looked at the purple dragon, who seemed like had just ate enough, and was now resting into Gaul's lap. "So… what will you do now?"

Gaul looked at him, and back at the young purple dragon, who was looked back at him with these innocent amethyst eyes, and that goofy smile. Once again, Gaul felt his heart melting, but of course, that would not affect his decision, for he had already made his mind a long time ago.

"I'll keep my promise." Gaul said, looking back at the ape. "I'll take care of this kid, and I'll raise him as I would raise my own son."

The ape looked back at him, and simply nodded, not saying anything, even though Gaul was almost sure that the ape was thinking on a few things that he might wanted to say. Gaul was sure that many of the apes who followed him where going to have a lot to say about that matter.

"If it is your decision, my king." The ape said in respect, his head bowed. "So… the purple dragon has a name?"

Gaul looked at him curiously, and back at the young purple dragon in his lap. Sure, with all that had happened, the subject of what name that young creature should have had totally slipped from Gaul's mind. Still, now that the storm had seemingly dissipated (for now, at least), the subject was brought back.

Yes, the purple dragon needed a name, and that was for sure. However, Gaul was soon finding himself with no options for a fitting name for that young dragon.

Should he pick up a name from his tribe? Or should he give him a proper dragon name? Dragons usually named their young ones in a way that was somehow related to their element. What should Gaul pick up for a name for that young dragon?

Many options passed by his head, however, none of them seemed to fit properly that young dragon, or what he had been through.

What he had been through…

That poor young soul had faced many dangers even before he actually hatched. He had almost been killed, had lost a mother, and had faced his very first near death experience. That hatchling had been through a lot, and yet he survived and was there.

He was alive, and he was breathing, and as he looked up at Gaul, he looked happy. As if nothing in the world could possibly hurt him or make him any harm. That young dragon had passed through many things and survived them all, and he was there, smiling brightly, as if to tell Gaul that, despite all the horrible things that were happening, there was always a chance that things would work out in the end.

As if to tell him that, despite all the horrible things that could happen, because of the war, or because of anything else, things could get better, and he could still smile and see a beautiful day in the following morning. Gaul liked this kind of feeling, and that was exactly the feeling that the young purple dragon gave him.

A feeling of hope.

That was when Gaul decided for a name. This name belonged to the ancient language. One created by the first living creatures, and was the first language ever spoke in the world, said to have been the dragons. This name was a word that had the very exact meaning of "hope". It was a fitting name for that young purple dragon, both because of his species, as it perfectly put into words all that the purple dragon represented in Gaul's eyes.

"Spyro…" Gaul said, gently petting the head of the purple dragon, who chirped in happiness.

"His name is Spyro."


	2. The Dragon, His Guard, and The Dragonfly

The sun shone bright into the sky as the life went by.

Under the clear blue sky and the mid-summer sun, a village went by. Apes inhabited this village, and they all lived their lives into their rustic houses, made out of wood, rock, and straw. All of them quite humble, but all of them perfect for their lives in there.

They all took care of their own lives in there, with the hunters of the village coming back, carrying fish and even some deer from the nearby forest, which would all be cooked and turned into a wonderful meal for everyone. The women of the village were also minding their own affairs, working with the clay and the straw to make pots, baskets, hats, and they were sewing tissues. Some of them were taking care of small gardens, which contained either small flowers, or some veggies, or medicinal herbs, used for a variety of purposes.

While the adults were minding their affairs and taking care of their responsibilities, their young were playing around, many of them without a single care in the world. These young ones wore only loincloths and other simple clothes made of animal pelts, much like everyone else into the village. They were simply kids being kids; acting as if they didn't had a single thing in the world to care about besides having fun the most they could. All of the young ones walked around, with the smaller toddlers running around and being goofy.

The ones who were nearing their teenage years, however, gathered, all of them talking about things, like their first lessons in fighting and hunting, and the times that they would spend trying to get the attention of that special girl they wanted to spend time with. If not that, then they were playing more mature games, like making some bets, seeing who could climb higher into the trees on the border of the village, or then some wrestling matches, or some hunter/hunted games. After all, that was part of entering the teenage years, gathering with others of your own age, do and talk about the things that would be part of the future. That was the regular behavior for recent teenagers.

However, there was one young soul into the village that didn't followed that same logic. It wasn't due to lack of interest, it was because it seemed that the others didn't quite wanted to be near this one. He wished to interact with others as much as anyone else of his own age would. The problem was that he was not very much like the other ones of his own age, at least not in that ape village.

The young four-legged being was walking as he looked around at the village. His golden horns were shining slightly into the sun of the afternoon, it matched perfectly with the rest of his body, both his purple body scales, and the golden color of the plates of his underbelly. His long tail moved behind him, ending into a spear-shaped, golden tailblade. His purple eyes were moving into the place, as he looked at the village, and he could not avoid a feeling of sadness as he saw everyone walk out of the way as he approached, almost as if they were afraid of getting trampled or bitten if they remained on his path.

Spyro knew what it was about, and he knew that it was because he was not what the rest of the apes were. He was a dragon. A purple one, by that matter. That was enough to make most of the apes in there to be highly hesitant to be near him, and to walk away whenever he came near or passed by.

Of course, it was possible that the current company for his small stroll had something to do with it…

"You know, I think you guys didn't needed to come with me." Spyro said as he looked to his sides, to the six burly and armed apes that were walking by his sides, all and each one of them with an unfriendly look in the face.

They were all slightly bigger than the average ape, not as big as Gaul, but they all were imposing, of course, the weapons that they carried helped in their hands helped to sell the image of a group that you wouldn't want to mess with.

"I could very well have walked across the village all by myself. I don't think there would be danger in here." Spyro continued, as he walked, and the six apes continued to follow his movements, forming a ring around him, as if to protect him from any danger that could possibly come on his direction.

"I'm sorry, mister Spyro." Said the nearest ape to him, with hazelnut-brown fur, and carrying an axe that looked like it could easily cut another ape in two. "But king Gaul left very clear instructions for us to always be with you whenever you went outside."

"Yeah, I know what dad said." Spyro said, "But I still think that you don't need to be so close."

Spyro continued to walk across the village with the personal guard that his father had assigned to him walking by his side. They had been with him for a few years, they all were soldiers that his father knew and trusted, and they had the mission to keep an eye on him and make sure that no problem would come to him. They had a double work of bodyguards and babysitters.

Spyro had already told his father that he didn't needed them, but the big ape was adamant, and made it clear that they would be with Spyro at any time that he would be walking into the village or out of it, and that he would not be going anywhere without them. This, of course, was quite annoying to the young dragon, who as leaving his young years to enter into the near teenage years, when he started to value his own privacy and space.

Still, Spyro understood, deep down, that his father just wanted him to be safe. Even though Spyro was not a kid anymore and thought that maybe, just maybe, he didn't needed that much protection.

Well, Spyro knew that he could do nothing about it, not with the clear instructions his father left for them. The purple dragon could only sigh as he continued to walk and the ring of armed apes continue to follow his movements as he walked across the center of the village. The other apes all walked out of the way, but that didn't meant that they wouldn't give him any form of attention. Even though Spyro actually preferred they didn't.

Spyro's hearing was sensitive, he could pick up the whispering that was going among the apes outside of the circle around him, and he could feel their eyes on him as he passed. Most of it was hard to hear and to understand correctly, but still, Spyro had a good idea of what they were saying by the expressions on their faces and by the tone they used.

Spyro had spent his whole life among other apes, and during most of it, the apes that were close to him and to his father always were nice to him. However, as he grew, Spyro noticed that not all the apes seemed to _want_ to be nice to him. Actually, Spyro started to realize that most of them seemed to want to keep distance from him.

When he was ten, his father finally started to explain to him better about the war. About the situation that the apes had with the dragons, and about their evil purple king. That was also the day when Gaul revealed to Spyro that he was not an ape, but a dragon, and that he was adopted.

Spyro couldn't say that many of these revelations came as great shock to him, but he knew that after that day he started to see the world with different eyes. Now he was much more aware of the feelings of mistrust, fear, and even anger that other apes seemed to have towards him. Also, he now could understand much better the reason why they seemed to want to stay away from him, and also to keep their own children away from him.

Spyro grew up with little to no friends of his own age, and he was sure that this would not change in the close future. Still, Spyro barely paid them very much attention. He had already grew used to having the other apes avoiding him and casting him those glances from over their shoulders, as well as having them whispering behind his back, thinking that he could not quite hear them.

For all Spyro knew, they could continue with their lives. He barely even minded any of them…

Spyro continued to walk with his guard, and soon, they were passing by the center of the village, and they continued to walk. They passed by it, and by the houses, and by the small shops that were in the place, and soon, they were moving in direction to the edge of the village.

As soon as they moved out, the apes seemed to tense up, as if they were expecting much more danger outside of the village than inside of it. Spyro simply rolled his eyes, as he thought that he was probably in pretty much the same amount of danger if he was either inside or outside of the village.

They continued to walk, and soon, they were at a bit of a distance from the village, and walking in direction to the trees that were on the verge of it. As they walked, the ground was starting to become a bit more irregular, and those with a sensitive enough nose could pick up the smell of the stale water.

They were approaching a swamp.

As they approached, they stopped a few yards away from the edge of the swamp, and they stood there, as Spyro took a step forward, shortly walking out of the protective circle of apes, and he looked forward. He took a deep breath, and he let out a scream.

"SPAAAAAAAARX!"

Several birds, surprised and startled, flew off the nearby trees, as they voice of the young dragon echoed into the trees and inside of the swamp. One of the apes who was forming Spyro's cohort put a finger on his ear as he made an expression as if it was hurting a bit. The young dragon had quite some powerful lungs.

Spyro waited, as he looked at the trees ahead and minutes passed. Spyro was about to take a great breath to call out again, when he noticed a small glowing dot flying in his direction. The purple dragon knew what it was, and he smiled to himself as the dot flew on his direction, before it stopped at a few feet of him.

"Hey, Spyro!" Said the creature who had just arrived with a masculine and young voice. The creature had the upper body of a humanoid nature, with a pair of arms, a big head with two antenna, and four insect-like wings on its' back. Its' lower body consisted into a segmented insect-like tail, and its whole body was yellow and glowed with a weak golden luminosity.

"Hi Sparx." Spyro said, greeting his small dragonfly friend. He and Sparx had met a few years ago, during a time when Spyro had eloped from home, wandered too deep into the forest, and entered into the swamp. The two had met completely by chance, and while they had been deeply scared of each other at first sight, they soon grew attached to each other, and they started to play around a bit.

Spyro remembered very well that day. It was the day when he learned about dragonflies, and the day when he had made his first real friend. It was indeed a very good day for the young dragon, even if later on his father put him grounded for a whole month for walking out home hidden and without permission.

Sparx had greeted the purple dragon with a surprisingly strong and deep voice. If one were to compare both ages of the two creatures, they would conclude that while Spyro would be on beginning of his teenage years (13, 14), Sparx was mostly in the middle of it (15, 16). This age difference was something that many would say that they were unlikely of becoming friends, or that it would be unusual. However, there was nothing like that. Apparently, Sparx was kind of a pariah among his own race, and didn't had many friends his own age. As a result, he and Spyro got along almost immediately after knowing each other, that is, after the initial scare of coming face to face with a real-life dragon had passed.

"So, how you doing?" Sparx asked the younger dragon, resting an arm on his nose as who would be leaning on a table.

"Same old. Dad still travelling, but he might come back soon." Sparx said to him, and he gestured behind himself. "Meanwhile, I'm stuck with my nannies." He was referring to the apes that his father had made into Spyro's personal guard. Sparx looked up at them, and he waved.

"Hey, dudes!"

The apes waved back at the dragonfly just briefly. They already knew Sparx, for Spyro frequently met up with him. After all, Sparx was probably the first and only friend that Spyro has had, once the rest of the village was either too suspicious or scared of getting near him or letting their young do the same.

"So, what will we do today?" Spyro asked him, and Sparx chuckled at the dragon.

"Well, there was a guy last week that doubted that I knew a dragon who could crush him if he made fun of me." Sparx said, "I could take you there and we both show him just how wrong he is."

"Young Master Spyro can't move too far from the village." One of the apes said. "King Gaul left clear instructions that he would have to stay within the limits of the village and away from danger."

Spyro rolled his eyes, and he really wished that his father had not been so specific on his instructions to the guards or that they were not so diligent in following them.

Sparx only looked to them, and he said, "You guys are some major joy killers, did you knew that?"

"We are just following King Gaul's orders." The guard said, "Our duty is to make sure Spyro is safe, and that involves keeping watch over him and preventing him from doing things that would put him in danger, like walking into the swamp."

"Excuse me!" Sparx said, "My home is not dangerous! It is a very nice place where you can enjoy the strong scent of nature and swim into the waters for a refreshing day! Well, of course you have to watch out for the deeper part, because some snakes lurk in there… It also has some very good fruits from which you can eat! Even though some of them are poisonous… And it also has a very soft soil where you can sit, lay and walk all you want! As long as you are aware not to step into quicksand…"

The guards only looked at the two teenagers with a "not amused" expression, and the guard said. "I'm sorry, but going to the swamp is out of question. If Gaul finds out we let Spyro wander in there he will have our heads for sure."

Spyro sighed, and Sparx only looked at him. "Man, and I thought that being the son of a king would actually be cool." Sparx said, to which Spyro answered:

"Well, it is not as cool if the king is paranoid with your safety all the time."

"So… what do we do now?" Sparx asked, and a little silence came, as the dragon smirked and said:

"Would you like have some more heart cashews?"

"Oh! Nice! I love those! I have been dreaming about them ever since we got them last week!" Sparx said in delight, but the apes who were with Spyro actually shared a worried look among themselves.

"Huuh, Master Spyro?" One of them said, "I'm not sure if it is a good idea…"

"Why not?" Spyro asked him, "It is inside the limits of the village and you will be able to keep an eye on me all the time. You won't be disobeying any order that dad gave, and you surely won't get in trouble."

"But the heart cashews-"

"Are one of the best fruits in the whole village, and that is why I want to get some of them." Spyro said, "So, dad said to you that you should make sure I was safe, but he also said that, as long as it was within the ranges of the village's territory, I could go to anywhere I wanted and you could not stop me, ain't I right?" Spyro had a smirk on his face as he said that, and he knew that he had made a score by the expressions of the guards.

They seemed like they didn't really had a choice but do what Spyro wanted in that occasion, because now the orders that his father gave them were working on his favor. He turned back to his dragonfly friend, Spyro asked:

"Wanna go get some heart cashews?"

"Count me in!" Sparx said, Spyro smiled at him, and he said:

"Race to see who gets there first? First one to arrive has to give half of the heart cashews he gets to the other" They looked at each other for a few moments, before both of them sprint forward in running (or buzzing, in Sparx's case). The guards soon had to rush to be able to keep up with them, the six of them with the feeling that they were going to regret being so dutiful in following their king's orders.

Spyro and Sparx both were ahead of them, and the guards soon saw themselves struggling to be able to keep up with the two teens.

The purple dragon and the buzzing glowing dot following him soon were passing inside the village, and as they ran, they startled a few of the apes who were taking care of their own affairs inside of the village.

"What the-"

"Hey!"

"What is this!?"

"Look out!"

Sparx and Spyro barely gave any attention to them. Well, Sparx didn't, while Spyro was caring enough to say some "Careful!", "Purple dragon passing!", "Excuse me!", and even an occasional "I'm sorry!"

Meanwhile, the guards came right after them, and apologized better with the other apes in behalf of the young purple dragon they were guarding, before going on his direction.

"You know, if Gaul left someone to watch that dragon, he could at least also have made them do it inside of the hut." One female ape said to another as they watched the guards running after the purple dragon and his glowing, small dragonfly friend.

"You know, Gaul should have arranged a cage to put that dragon in while he is away, instead of letting him walk around as he pleases." The other female ape answered, and the first female could only not in agreement…

Spyro was able to get a good running start, but Sparx was famous for his own flying speed (or so he claimed), and he soon was proving to make the purple dragon have a run for his money (so to speak). Spyro was actually starting to pant a little as he ran, while Sparx looked back at him as he flew on his back, almost as someone who was doing the back swim. He had a tranquil expression in his face as he waved to the purple dragon.

Spyro had a fierce expression on his face as he snorted, and started to put all the effort he could into running faster, and he was actually able to gain some terrain. They were already moving to the opposite end of the village, in a direction very far from the swamp, with the apes behind them calling out for them to "slow down".

As they raced, Sparx had dropped the act of the easy race, but he was still smiling as he looked at the purple dragon. "I hope you get plenty of them for yourself, dude." The dragonfly said, "After all, the more of them you get the more of them you'll give me, and the less of them I'll have to get myself!"

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Spyro said as he dashed across the ground, and he knew that he was not in the mood for losing to Sparx. He knew that, even with his arguments, his father was not going to be happy about Spyro going to pick heart cashews without the proper help after what nearly happened around two months ago. If Spyro was going to get into trouble for doing that once his father got back, he could at least win Sparx in this, so he would not have this over getting into trouble.

They continued to race, and after a while, they could spot some trees at a distance, tall and with purple colored leaves on them. Once they saw it, Sparx smiled as he licked his chops. "I can't wait to be able to eat some of these delicious things that my dear purple friend caught for me."

"Yeah, that will be nice." Spyro said, "But they will be your dessert, because first you will eat my dust!" Suddenly, the purple dragon made a running dash forward, actually raising some dirt and blades of grass into the air, and this temporarily slowed down the dragonfly, who was coughing.

"H-Hey! Gah, pthuh! No fair!" Sparx said, but Spyro barely gave him attention, as he continued to race towards the trees with purple leaves, which came closer and closer as he ran in their direction, and as they did, Spyro could feel a familiar aroma as he approached. He didn't had time to enjoy it as he knew that he had to arrive there before Sparx could caught up with him, and he could almost taste the victory, and it was almost as good as the heart cashews themselves.

Spyro was able to get a good advantage ahead, but now Sparx had recovered from the dirty and grass, and he was looking forward to the purple butt in front of him. "Just watch me, my scaly friend." Sparx said as he took a mad dash forward, buzzing his wings as fast as he could and moving forward and straight just like a missile.

There was a moment in which he and Spyro were head to head, and they were both struggling to see who would lose their strength first and allow the other to get there first.

"Hey, Spyro!" Sparx said, as both of them continued to run. "Purpledragonslappedsayswhat!"

"What?" Spyro said, and immediately, Sparx slapped him into nose with a surprising strength for a creature his size in comparison with the purple dragon. This threw Spyro off balance enough for him to trip in his own legs and stumble into the ground. The purple dragon slid into the ground as he stumbled, some grass getting in his mouth as he slid in the ground, before he stopped and was able to look up, just in time to see Sparx buzz and swarm around the trunks of these trees.

"I won! I won! Who rocks? Sparx rocks! Oh yeah! The dragonfly rules!"

"Hey!" Spyro said, as he spat out grass from his mouth and got up. "It wasn't fair! You slapped me in the face!" Spyro said as he ran in direction to the dragonfly, meanwhile Sparx was making a small dance in the air.

"Oh what? You said something, Spyro? I can't hear you above all of the winning!" He dragonfly said, and he added: "You know what this means! You will have to give me half of all of the fruits you can get from these trees!"

"No I don't!" Spyro said, as the apes finally were able to reach them, all of them panting slightly as they reach the two teenagers. "You played dirty! You didn't won!"

"Yes I did! I arrived first."

"Because you slapped me!" Spyro said, and the apes only looked at each other as they saw the teenagers having another argument.

"Sorry, you never mentioned any rules." Sparx said in his defense, "Make sure to get a lot of them." He added with a smirk.

"Why? You can't even eat that much, I mean, look at your size."

"Oh, playing the size card once more huh?" Sparx said, "Well, I'm pretty sure that I can surprise you, my dear friend."

"Okay, enough of this." One of the guards said, and the two turned to him. "You two ended this race and I think that I've done my exercises of the day." He said, "Can we just finish this and go home."

"Oh, we will! Right after I have a few of those for me!" Sparx said pointing to the branches of the high trees, filled with purple leaves. However, Sparx was pointing to something else that could be seen in the branches, some red speckles among the purple leaves.

"Well, you can get them." Another one of the apes said, "When we get back into the tribe and get some help and equipment for that."

"Oh, come one guys." Spyro said, "They are right on the point of being picked! Just feel the smell!"

The purple dragon was referring to the aroma that was fluctuating in the air around them, coming from the branches of the trees. It was a sweet aroma and this kind of smell was unmistakable. It was the aroma of ripe heart cashews, ready to be removed from the tree and ate.

"Yes, but going in the trees to get them without any equipment can be dangerous. Don't you remember two months ago?"

"I was kind of hopping we all could forget that." Spyro said as he looked away, and Sparx said:

"I know that I won't!" He had a smile on his face as he remembered that scene. "Man, I didn't know that a dragon's voice could get that squeakily!" and he laughed a little at the memory of the embarrassing experience that Spyro had.

"Well, king Gaul has surely not forgotten." The guard said, and he looked at the purple dragon. "And he also knows that if you hadn't received help in time it could have gotten far worse! Some apes had broken bones from a situation like that!" He said, and he turned around, "You see this?" He said as he let them see a long scar on his back. "This was from one time that I tried to get into one of these trees all by myself because a friend of mine dared me."

Spyro only rolled his eyes, and he said, "Come on guys, I'm not letting that thing get me again! I'm smarter than that now. Nothing is going to happen."

"You are right, because if anything happens to you, something a lot worse is going to happen to us, and that's why you are not getting in there by yourself. If you want, we can get someone to come here and pick up a few fruits, or you can wait a few more days for the harvesters come and get a few. I am sure that they will make a special price for you. After all, that is one of the perks of being the king's son." The ape looked at Sparx as he said that last line, and the dragonfly only looked back at him.

Sparx then shared one look with Spyro, and after a few seconds, they both sighed. "You truly _are_ joy killers." Spyro said, and the Apex simply rolled their eyes as they were turning around and getting ready to leave, when Sparx suddenly said.

"Well, I have to say that I admire it." He was now in full view of the apes. "It really is something to admire the way that you guys follow so diligently the orders of Spyro's dad." He said, as if to infatuate the apes. "You guys should ask for a raise."

The apes shared a look among themselves, and at least two of them were actually agreeing with the small dragonfly. "Your point is?"

"I mean, you all are just so dedicated!" Sparx said, continuing to infatuate the apes with his talking. "You follow the little purple rascal whenever he goes, have to make sure that he is safe and well at all the time, and you need to make sure that he does not gets into troubles. I mean, caring for a teenager is already hard, and imagine if this teenager is such a rascal like Spyro, and it he also has a certain dragonfly partner-in-crime that supports him in his actions." He said, almost as if he was making a monologue. "For instance, distracting you guys so he can have the chance to climb the tree without you guys seeing."

"WHAT!?" The apes all said at the same time, and they turned around, seeing that Spyro was nowhere to be see. They looked up, and they could spot the young purple dragon gripping into the bark of the trunk as he was climbing into the tree in direction to the branches and to the prize that was hanging from there.

"Hey! Get down from there!" One of the guards said, and another turned to Sparx.

"Why you!"

The dragonfly simply laughed, and he buzzed away, flying very near to his friend.

"Thanks, dude." Spyro said to his dragonfly friend.

"What would you do without old Sparx in here?" The dragonfly said, "Just remember to get a lot of these fruits for me."

"Yeah, you can at least try to get a few of them by yourself, since we are both going up there."

"Yeah, I guess I could, but I don't need to try much because you will give me half of yours."

Spyro stopped for a moment, and he looked at Sparx. "You know what? Why don't we both get as many as we can and later we split them evenly between us?"

"Hmmmm." Sparx said.

"Or, I can get down right now, forget about this whole situation and wait one more week until the harvesters come for the cashews."

"Okay fine, deal." Sparx said, and he took ahead buzzing, while Spyro continued to climb the tree. The young purple dragon was skilled in climbing, a consequence of having grew up among apes and among so many trees. According to some, Spyro had learned how to climb a few weeks after having fully mastered the art of crawling, and of course, the fact that he had talons that could dig into the wood and give him a better grip of the bark helped a lot.

"Spyro!"

"Mister Spyro!"

"Get back down here you little troublemaker!"

The guards continued to scream at the purple dragon who continued only to climb into the tree, indirection to the branches, where were both the fruits and the vines.

"King Gaul will have our heads if anything happen to a scale of his body." One guard said, and he quickly moved in direction to the trunk and started to climb. Seeing him do that, the other five guards shared a look, and soon they all were moving in direction to the trunk, putting their weapons in their backs or into their mouths as they tested to see if they could get a good grip of that trunk before they started to climb.

Spyro already has a starting advantage, but the apes had the advantage of being more experienced in climbing and being somewhat nimbler, even with their weapons weighing them down. They were able to cover some more terrain as they climbed, even thought Spyro was, on his own, very nimble and fast on his own right. By the time Spyro was three-quarters on his way to the first branches, the guards were halfway and right on his tail.

"I swear that if I was Gaul I would ground this purple dragon." One of the guards said as he climbed, and another one said something. It was hard to understand for he had an axe held in his teeth as he used both hands and feet to climb, but it was clear that it was an agreement. Meanwhile, Spyro was on the first line to reach the branches, and he could already see his prize ahead.

Heart cashews were fruits that grew up from these trees, and they were easy to spot once you got close enough, for they had an intense scarlet color. They sprouted upside down and they hanged from the branches into lines of green material, and they had a single seed in them that was on the point that was opposite to the one they hanged from the trees. This seed was black in color and it had the shape of a heart. These fruits exhaled a sweet scent in the air that was very characteristic for them, and that would always made Spyro's mouth water as he could only think of taking a bite in these delicious things.

Spyro liked his chops as he was firming his claws more securely into the bark of the tree as he climbed more and more, soon covering the distance that separated him from the fruit. He stopped at a certain distance, as he looked at the branch from which the fruits were hanging, and to the purple vines that were swirling around it, covered into thorns.

Spyro tensed as he looked at that vines, and he knew that he would have to be careful in approaching. The last thing he wanted was to go through what he did two months ago…

Spyro approached very slowly, he was making sure to approach the branch as carefully as possible, and soon, the guards were right behind him, the first one saying:

"You are in trouble once we get back to the ground..."

"Shhhh!" Spyro said to him in a hush, as he saw that, with the sound of his voice, one of the vines had moved very slightly, almost like a snake around a branch. A few moments passed, and the vine went back to be still in the branch, and Spyro sighed, and he went back into approaching, until he reached the branch and was now aiming to walk on it, threading as slowly as he dared.

As he moved, the vines around his limbs moved very slowly, and Spyro knew that he had to be careful in there. Spyro soon reached the first of the heart cashews, and he carefully moved on to pick it with his paw. He was able to get a good grip at the red, pear-shaped fruit, and was able to pull it gently, until it disconnected from the line it was and came off in Spyro's paw.

The vines moved slightly at this, but they didn't seemed to be doing anything else than that. Spyro sighed as he held the fruit in his paw, and moved it in direction to his body. He was now bending his arm/foreleg to form an improvised space where he would be able to carry the fruits, as he continued to move in the branch with only three paws.

Meanwhile, Sparx was ahead, and he was pulling at one heart cashew until it came off from the branch, and the dragonfly carried it carefully, before flying with it back in direction to the ground. Sparx could not carry many at a time, so each one he took off he had to carry to the ground and leave in the base of the tree before flying back in direction to the branches to take off another one.

Three of the fruits were already in a small pile in the base of the tree. Spyro was somewhat envious of Sparx, since the dragonfly could buzz around with his wings and go up and down the tree in the blink of an eye. Spyro really wished that he knew how to fly…

Spyro was distracted, and he didn't noticed when his tail brushed in one of the vines. Immediately, it started to move, and Spyro could feel something brushing into his tail, he got startled and looked back, seeing the vine trying to wrap around his tail. Instinctively, Spyro pulled his tail out of its reach, and the vine lashed in the air, as if searching for the thing it was trying to wrap around.

Spyro continued to move, now a bit faster as the vines were moving into the branch as if they were snakes. The initial touch seemed to have caught them to "wake up" to the fact that there was something in the branch.

"Careful man!" Sparx said as he pulled on yet another heart cashew out of the branch. "Don't want them to get you again, do you?" He said the last part with a smile, and he buzzed downwards, Spyro could only snort, as he knew that it would be not funny if they did. Spyro continued to walk carefully, and he was able to reach a few more heart cashews. He was able to stretch his neck to be able to reach for the cashews and get them with his mouth, carefully pulling them out of their spots and adding them to the ones he was carrying.

The apes were looking at the purple dragon, and they were particularly worried as the purple dragon was now putting his _neck_ very close to the branch and of the vines in it. If Gaul came back from his last campaign and found his purple dragon son choked to death or with a broken neck, the simians were all sure that their own families would not even be able to identify their bodies by the time the big king of apes was done with them.

"This is just great." One of the apes said as he removed his axe from his mouth and started to walk into the branch, being very careful not to step into any of the vines that moved in the branch like serpents. He was walking in direction to the purple dragon, aiming to reach him to, at least, prevent him from getting killed over a few fruits.

Meanwhile, Spyro continued to remove the cashews from the branch, his foreleg now had some of them, and it was making it hard for him to carry them all. Spyro looked at the cashews he had gathered, and looked back at the branch, still with a lot of fruit, but also with the vines moving around over the place. He decided that now it would be a good time to come down.

He started to move carefully into the branch, and he found it to be rather difficult while carrying the cashews and considering that the branch didn't had enough space for him to turn around while on all fours. The purple dragon was basically only walking backwards in direction to the place where he came from, so, it was not surprising that he ended up stepping in one of the moving vines.

Immediately, the vine reacted by wrapping around Spyro's leg. The thorns were malleable, but they still could cause the sensation of something pinching lightly on his scales, and the feeling of the constriction was enough for the purple dragon to let out a surprised yelp and look back.

"H-hey! Let go!" Spyro said, and as he tried to get free from the vine, he bumped into another one, that tied around his other hind leg. "Gah! Stop that!" Spyro said as he tried to break free, and in the process, he dropped the heart cashews that he had gathered and let them fall in direction to the ground.

Spyro was now struggling effectively against the vines, as another one tied both of his forelegs and made the purple dragon to nearly drop into the branch as he was now held from both sides by the vines. He suddenly felt something rubbing against his backside, and he felt his blood run cold.

 _Oh no…_ Spyro thought. _No, no, no! Not that! Not again!_

Spyro immediately lashed his tail, trying to fend off these assailants, but he only managed to get another vine to tie his tail and hold it at the side, as other vines continued to rub his butt.

Spyro felt his breathing getting heavier and faster, and he felt a sense of the purest dread, as he knew what was coming next, and so did everyone who was watching.

Suddenly, it came.

A vine lashed on his backside, hitting it like a whip, and making the purple dragon cry out in surprise and in pain.

That was only the first, for then another vine lashed on his backside, and then they continued that, lashing the purple dragon's butt.

Spyro felt his face burning in embarrassment as the vines now were spanking him, and meanwhile, he was crying out.

"Gaaah! Stop! Stop it!" He cried out, but the vines didn't felt sorry for him in the slightest, and they only continued to lash at his butt with strength. "H-help!" Spyro cried out "Someone help me!"

The others around only looked at it, and Sparx, who was floating nearby, started to laugh hard at it. It was just as funny as it was when the same thing happened two months ago!

"Q-quit it, Sparx!" Spyro cried out as the vines continued to lash at his backside, and he turned his head to the apes who companied him. "G-guys! Help me!"

The apes shared a look among themselves, and some of them were actually snickering at each other. Maybe they thought that this was what Spyro deserved for bringing problem to them by doing something like that. This habit of the vines of constricting enemies and lashing at them was something that the tree had developed as a defense mechanism against anything that could harm it. It was the reason why it could be dangerous to try to get the heart cashews if you didn't had the experience, the equipment, and if you were all by yourself.

Even though it was a way of defending against any dangers that could harm the tree by making potential threats move away, it could sometimes lead to some situations like the one that the purple dragon was facing in the moment.

The apes all looked as Spyro continued to be punished by the vines, much like a young chimp being spanked by its parents, and crying out a lot as he received this.

"T-this is not funny!" Spyro cried out. "Get me out of here!"

"Should we do it now?" One ape asked.

"I guess it is better, the vines look like they are getting more vicious."

Indeed, once the supposed threat was not retreating from the tree, the vines were assuming that they needed to attack stronger for the threat to go away. As a result, they were lashing faster and more furiously at the target, and Spyro felt like soon they would start breaking his skin.

Fortunately to him, right at that moment, the ape who had walked into the branch finally decided to act, he positioned himself so he would not step on any vines, and he swung his axe with precision, cutting these two vines clean off. The vines lashed out at their severed parts, but were unable to reach or hit anything else.

"Ohhhh." Spyro whined as his butt felt numb and his face was burning in shame.

"Well, I guess that I could say that I warned you, but the vines kind of already did that for me." The ape said, as he proceeded to cut off the vines that were holding on Spyro's limbs, freeing him as the vines loosened once they were cut and feel down to the ground, while the rest of them lashed around.

"Ouhhhhh…" Spyro said as he tried to stand, but with the numbness on his backside, it was a bit hard to stand on his hind legs, but soon he was able to stand properly, all of that under the gaze of that ape, who seemed to be having fun with that.

"Lets get down now." The ape said, "Careful not to step on any more of them." He said that with a bit of irony, as if that whole situation was a great game to him. Spyro knew well that he probably had fun seeing Spyro go through that, much like everyone else who saw it. Sparx was openly laughing as he pointed at Spyro.

"Just like last time!" He said as he continued to laugh hard for the whole situation. "Man, the tree really know how to give others a good lesson!"

Spyro felt his face burning, and he avoided eye contact with anyone as he walked back in the branch in direction to the trunk, and as he climbed down back to the ground. It was a bit hard with the pain on his tail area, and he need the help of one of the guards one or two times, but he was able to reach it and he was still avoiding looking at anyone.

"Well, I guess the tree once more showed that it can beat a dragon." Sparx said, and he winked at the purple dragon, and Spyro only snorted and looked away, feeling that at any moment his face could ignite. He knew that the dragonfly was not going to let it go easily. He had just let go of the event of two months before, and now the very same event had repeated, and this was enough to make Spyro worry about it, for he knew that the dragonfly was going to make a new round of jokes.

"Well, now that we went through it all and we have a good laugh, I guess we can now share our hoard from the tree."

Spyro sighed, and looked around, and he saw the heart cashews that he had dropped. They were slightly splattered into the ground due to the fall, and Spyro groaned to himself. They probably wouldn't be that good to eat now that they were like that, and this reduced their total number of fruit to only the ones that Sparx had got.

Sparx followed Spyro's gaze, and he stayed in silence for a while, before saying. "So, which one of these will be mine?"

"We cant' eat them anymore."

"What? Only because they got a little of grass in them? Man, you need to stop being such a wuss." The dragonfly said, and Spyro only rolled his eyes at him, and he said:

"Well, I know that I won't eat those."

Sparx looked at him, and he saw the cashews in there, they should be around eight, and he looked at his own cashews, and they were only four. The dragonfly turned to Spyro, and he said, "Wanna trade?"

Spyro looked at him for a few moments, and he shrugged as he said, "Yeah, sure."

Soon Sparx was on the place where the crimson-colored cashews had fallen, and he was feasting in one, getting himself smeared in the juice as he gobbled the pulp of that fruit. Meanwhile, Spyro was sitting with the cashews that Sparx had gathered, all of them perfect and not damaged in any way. That was the way that Spyro preferred, the heart cashews became strange when they were damaged, with their pulp becoming mushy and their taste changing to something more acid.

Spyro was glad that he had gotten some of them that were not damaged. Sparx could have the others, and he seemed to like very much of them. Spyro looked at his own, and picked one of his paw, bringing it to his muzzle. The sweet scent reached Spyro's nose, and almost made him moan, and his mouth was watering in anticipation.

Spyro opened his mouth and gave a bite into the fruit. Heart cashews were known for their particular color, and for the heart-shaped seed that they had in them, both which gave them their name. Other than that, they were slightly famous for their sweet taste with some acidic notes. It was a delicious and unmistakable taste, and after you chewed and swallowed, they left a characteristic aftertaste.

Spyro almost moaned again as he bit the cashews, passing through the crimson covering and reaching for the sweet, pinkish pulp inside. The heart cashews were Spyro's favorite fruit, and the purple dragon really would jump to the chance of getting one of them. In fact, just the opportunity to be able to taste one now made worth what he had just went through with the tree, and he would do it again if he could get more of them.

Spyro chewed and swallowed, and he didn't even gave the aftertaste time to come before he gave another bite. In five bites, he had finished the cashew, leaving behind only the seed shaped like a heart. Spyro put it into the ground, and he was already feeling the aftertaste. Kind of bitter, with mostly sweet, like the pulp, but different.

Spyro reached out for another one, and he started to eat. All the while, the apes that formed his guard were keeping an eye on him.

"Just look at him…" Said one ape, the same who got Spyro free from the vines up there. "All happy juts because of a bunch of fruits. He seems just like a chimp."

"Yeah." Another ape agreed, "If chimps had scales, wings, talons, horns, and teeth so sharp that they could possibly rip out the head of an adult ape if they actually tried."

The guards shared a chuckle, and the first one who spoke said, "But, seriously, I think that Spyro is actually a nice kid."

"Yeah, but he keeps getting into trouble. Yesterday we had to save him from being mauled by some merchants who claimed that he had trashed their stands."

"Yeah, but it was an accident." The ape said on his defense. "Spyro did seemed like he felt bad for doing that."

"Yeah that is true." A third ape said. "Also, I don't think the damage was that bad for them to want to maul him."

The apes remained in silence after that, and they reflected on the fact that sometimes it seemed that the other apes searched for reasons to blame Spyro of something, or maybe even made up reasons, as if Spyro's mere presence was enough to cause unfortunate events. Almost as if they thought that Spyro was somehow cursed, or something of the like.

The fact was that many in the village didn't trusted a purple dragon, even the ones who claimed not to have anything against Spyro seemed not to want to be close to him. The guards knew that, because when they were first assigned to that job, some of them shared of the very same opinion.

"I can't believe we have been responsible for Spyro for five years already." The first ape said.

"I can't believe on how much that dragonfly can eat!" Said another ape, who had been looking at Sparx, who had just finished gobbling the third heart cashew, leaving behind only the seeds behind.

Soon Spyro too was finished with his cashews, and all that was left behind was the seeds, and Spyro sighed in contentment as he gathered to four seeds, all shaped like small hearts, in his paw.

"Man! That was good." Spyro said to himself, and he looked over, seeing Sparx laying in the ground with his belly in the air. The belly of that dragonfly was comically bloated, and there was no sign that the heart cashews had ever existed besides of the stains of their juices in the floor and the seeds left behind by the gluttonous invertebrate.

Spyro chuckled, got back on his feet, and walked to the dragonfly, and he stopped with his head just above Sparx. "Man, you really ate them all." Spyro said, half-amused, half-stunned.

"I felt full after a while, but I knew that if I stopped eating I was going to regret it." Sparx said, and right after, he let out a surprisingly loud belch. Spyro could only laugh at this. That was one of the main reasons why he enjoyed being with Sparx, that glowing bug constantly found a way to make him smile and laugh.

"Okay then." One guard said, approaching the dragon and dragonfly. "You both kids had your heart cashews, now I guess we can go back to the village now, right?"

"Even because…" Another guard said, looking at the sun. "It is almost time for your training, mister Spyro."

"Oh, right!" Spyro said; this had almost slipped his mind. He looked at Sparx, certainly to full to fly right now, and he picked him up and placed him on top of his head, in between his horns. Next, he picked up the seeds that Sparx had left behind, and collected them all on his paw.

The guards looked at him as he did that, and Spyro simply said: "What? The seeds are almost as good as the fruit."

In fact, the pulp of the fruit was not the only thing that could be eaten. Once they were cleaned, toasted, and rightly seasoned, the seeds of the heart cashews made a fine nut that was a very nice snack. It was another thing that Spyro really liked, and that made the heart cashews by his favorite fruit.

Once they had it ready, the guard once more formed a ring around Spyro as they were now scouting him back into the village. Spyro, on his side, could only roll his eyes as he wondered why they still did that.

Well, probably because his father ran a tight ship when it came into keeping him safe, and the instructions he gave them were _really_ specific. Soon, they were walking back into the village, six apes forming a ring, a purple dragon in the center, and a belly-bloated, snoring dragonfly on the purple dragon's head.

As they walked, Spyro was already getting ready to have once more the stares and the whispering of the others of the village over him. That was one thing that Spyro had grew used to over the years growing up in these villages. No matter where he was, Spyro frequently saw himself being a target of looks and of these whispering from other creatures, and now he barely even minded anymore.

Sighing, Spyro looked at the sky, letting Sparx fall from his head into his back, right between his wings. As he looked at the clouds, Spyro could not avoid letting his thoughts wander to the one that was maybe the only one who never really judged him in any way.

Gaul, the King of Apes.

Or, as Spyro knew him: "Dad…"


	3. Munduri

Spyro and his group walked across the village once more. Once more, the apes formed a ring around Spyro, to which the purple dragon could only roll his eyes in annoyance at, but he knew that he could do nothing about it. He just sighed as his personal guard made sure to scout him to the place where he was required to go next.

They moved across the village, until they approached a particularly big rut, made from wood, straw and big leaves in the ceiling. This rut in particular was sturdier than the others were, once it and reinforced, due to its size, with pillars of wood from trunks of trees, and tied in place with vines.

That was because this rut was not mean only to be a place to live in, but to be a place of training.

Spyro and his group soon approached the hunt, they entered into the door, which was with with a curtain made from tissue, and once inside, they met a place that was surely more than just a place to stay and to rest after a hard day working outside and walking around the village.

The place was big on the inside, and the walls of the hunt were decorate with what seemed to be some symbols of tribal tradition, painted with red, white and black ink. The ground of the place was completely cover with layers of straw, what made the ground in there much softer to step into and even to lay on. However, that softness in the ground was not for comfort, and Spyro already knew that, still, it was hard not to feel somewhat comfortable to step, sit and even lay in that ground when he had some chance to do that.

As soon as Spyro and his guard walked inside, someone who was in there already greeted them. There should have around 14 apes in there, the youngest of them being around the same age as Spyro, and others being already adults. The 15º, the oldest of them, was clearly older than the rest of them. He was an ape who was big. Not as big as Gaul, Spyro's father, but he was bigger than the average ape. He stood in a height that he was able to look down to make eye contact with Spyro, something quite rare among the other apes. He wore a clothing that consisted into a robe of blue tissue with green details; quite more clothing than the rest of the apes usually wore around the village. He had fur of a light shade of grey, possibly due to his old age, what had his fur losing its coloration. His eyes were golden in coloration, they showed the weight of the years of wisdom and experience of his many years of life, and that was easy to see as he looked at the purple dragon who had just walked in.

"Ah, young Spyro." He said in a soft tune, with a warm and kind smile on his face at the purple reptile who had just walked in. "Seems that you arrive just in the nick of time, as you usually do."

"Sorry, Karuum Nalug." Spyro said, bowing his head gently. "I kind of lost track."

"It's okay. The important is that you are here. Now, if you may take place with the others, the lesson will start now that everyone is here." The older ape said, and Spyro bowed his head again in a sign of respect, before rushing to have a place among the other apes. As he took place, the other apes on him were discreetly moving away from him. Spyro just ignored him, once he was already used to this kind of thing, instead, he made sure to focus on the lesson that he was going to have.

"Now, you all in here are already familiar with all of the basics." The grey ape, Karuum Nalug, said as he walked in front of all of the ones who were his class, with his hands behind his back as he spoke solemnly, to make sure they all would hear him. "Now, while some of you have more deep knowledge of the most advanced techniques, you all must never forget about the importance of the most basic. After all, the basic is the root for the advanced, and if you forget the basic, than you are doomed to eventually lose the skill in the advanced. That is why, for today, we will focus on strengthening the basic knowledge of the principles of the Munduri. Now, choose a partner, get in position, and practice the basic of blocking and attacking."

As he said that, the class started to move about, as the ones in there started to choose their training partners, usually by pairing with someone who would be nice training partners, either by friendship or by overall affinity. Of course, Spyro was not surprised to see that he was left without a pair to train.

The purple dragon sighed, and as the teams formed around him, the grey ape came to him.

"Spyro, you will be training with me."

"Yes, Karuum." Spyro said, bowing his head. The ape nodded at him, and soon, they took a small distance from each other, and they both got in a position. Karuum Nalug took a position that was similar to all of the apes around them, with his arms positioned in front of his body, and his hands both as if they were ready to jab someone with the point of his fingers. One of his legs was stepping forward in an angle, while the other was behind him, as if he was ready to make a step backwards at any moment.

Spyro took another position, but which was overall similar to the one that Karuum Nalug was making. He was had his two forepaws ahead, his right one in front of the left one, and he was standing on the tips of his taloned fingers. His hind-legs had pretty much the same position of the older ape, as if he was ready to both step forward and step backward at any moment. His tail moved from side to side, as if to show that he was ready to battle.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"Begin!"

Immediately, the ones in there started to move around each other, it could even by mistaken by a dance, if it wasn't for the fact that they were attacking each other.

They were practicing Munduri, an ancient form of martial art that had its roots attributed to the apes.

Each duo was moving around each other with fast and nimble movements, and they attacked each other with their hands, elbows, knees and with their feet. The ones who attacked seemed to be aiming at specific parts of the enemies, like the joints and in other places that looked to be quite vulnerable, like the chest and the neck. The ones defending were blocking the attacks by using their limbs. Knees were block with the hands, punches were block with the forearms, kicks were block with the legs, and elbows were block with both arms.

It was obvious to notice that they all were practicing the very same style of fighting, however, a good eye could notice that each one of the practitioners were fighting in a slightly different way, as if each one was practicing a particular form of sub-style of that art that they were training. However, it was nothing more than Munduri, in its most basic form. That martial art was know for its adaptability, which allowed particular fighters to adapt the way of the art to their own strengths and even their personalities.

The perfect example of that was Spyro.

The purple dragon was sparring with Karuum Nalug, and he was demonstrating the skill of the Munduri on his own way. He was moving around, using his paws to attack. The ape, bigger than him and much more experienced, was easily blocking the attacks with his limbs, using his hands to block a jab of the paws of the purple dragon, while he used his feet to block attacks that were focused on the joints of his legs.

He also answered with his own attacks, which Spyro blocked mostly with his wings, using them to parry and even to block the attacks of the ape, much like the others used their own arms, and Spyro was showing to have a great skill in this, as he was able to keep up with the attacks of the ape.

As they moved, the ape showed to have a great skill in battle, and at the same time, he was saying things about the technique and style, not only to Spyro, but also to the other students;

"That was a nice defense, young dragon. Haron, stop dancing and fight back! Luru, Munduri focus on attacking the weak spots, but that does not means kicking the groin! This is not a fight between drunk apes, have some class! Kabut, try to correct your stance and avoid doing unnecessary movements!"

The ape seemed focused on fighting the purple dragon but he still seemed to be able to perceive the world around him, as if he had eyes everywhere on his body, which allowed him to perceive just everything around him. It was pretty cool, but it might sometimes be a bit creepy. Spyro could remember the old days when he would look at the ape with a mix of amazement and fear, trying to sight the eyes that he had all over his body, right underneath his fur, which the older kids told him about…

Spyro was bring back to reality by a jab of fingers in the junction of his wing with his "wing shoulder" on his body. It was not necessarily painful, but it was like a shock in that place, and it snapped Spyro back to the present.

"Focus on the battle, young one. An enemy with a blade could have used it to slice that wing of yours clean off." Karuum Nalug said to the young purple dragon, who said a "yes, Karuum" and now trying to keep his head into the battle.

He maintained his position as he advanced against the older ape. Spyro used his paws to try jabbing at the monkey. But Karuum Nalug had much more experience in actual battle than Spyro, and he was able to parry all the attacks of the young dragon. However, that did not discouraged the young dragon, but actually only seemed to push him into fighting better and harder.

Spyro continued to fight, and at some moments, he would resort to more than just his forepaws. At one moment, he would try to headbutt and hit with his horns. At one, he would plant both of his forelegs in the ground and swing his body to use his tail like a whip, or use his hind legs to kick much like a horse.

Of course, the skilled warrior would be able to dodge or parry them. One or two attacks actually landed, but the skill of Karuum Nalug would allow him to shrug it off as if it was nothing. He truly was a hardened warrior, and that was why he had these students and was teaching them such an ancient and noble art as the style of fighting the Munduri. Everyone who was in there truly respected him, including Spyro, who learned a lot from his four years of learning the advanced from of Munduri from him, after his father taught him the basics.

"Nice, moves, Spyro." Karuum Nalug said, "The same for you, Mollak. Keep up the good work. Kulbat, stop slacking off and take this seriously. You want to learn the more advanced techniques? Then you gotta focus on the battle!"

Spyro could not avoid the feeling of annoyance when it was clear that the ape was still able to fight on all that was going on around him while he fought Spyro. It was almost as if it was too easy for him, and he was able to diverge his attention without risking having a dangerous comeback from the purple dragon.

Spyro knew that he had landed a few hits, and it was very hard to do on a warrior of the level of Karuum, even if they were only lucky hits, as Spyro believed to have been _partially_ the case of these ones. Still, Spyro felt that he wanted at least to be a challenge big enough to make the grey ape to focus only on him and actually stop focusing on everything around him. So Spyro would at least feel like he was making him sweat a little. That would make him feel good about himself.

"Come on, Spyro!" Sparx said, cheering for the young purple dragon on the sidelines, as he and the apes who made up Spyro's guard were watching. "Show the furry dudes what a dragon is made off! Come on!"

The other apes shared looks among them, and they rolled their eyes, as they knew that the young dragonfly probably should not be making so much noise when the training was going on.

"That little friend of yours is quite of loud, ain't he? Junup, don't even think about it, young lady!" said the old and grey ape, and Spyro just shrugged.

"Yeah, he kind of likes to make sure that everyone hears him." Spyro said with a smile, and he continued to try to hit the big ape with his head, almost thrusting himself backwards as he aimed for the stomach, trying to damage the soft tissue in the area that had no ribs to protect it. However, Karuum Nalug only grabbed his head with both hands.

"That is a nice move." The old ape said, "But if you use it too many times the enemy will start to expect this, and in one of those attacks, they could grab your head like that and just twist it to break your neck." He said, as he moved Spyro's head in a "twist" way, as if to emphasize his point. He let go of Spyro, and the purple dragon only nodded to him, before letting out a sigh and resumed trying to hit his sparring partner.

"Come, dude! You can do better than that! Move that purple butt of yours!" Sparx cried from the sidelines.

Right after that, Spyro once more moved his body so he was able to use his tail like a whip, and this time he was able to hit the target. His hard tailbone landed right into the joint of Karuum Nalug's leg. The ape grinted his teeth as he felt the impact and was made to go into his knee.

There were a few gasps around as the others around stopped and turned their heads to see if it was actually truth that their teacher had been brought to his knee.

"Well, I didn't meant actually that, but whatever! You got him now!"

Spyro immediately moved back, raised his paw, and trust it forward, aiming the sole right in the solar plexus of his teacher.

However, the old ape showed that he still have some moves up his sleeve.

Immediately, as Spyro moved, the ape made a single movement with his arm, which blocked the attack, and swept it downwards. This made Spyro lose his balance, as he was literally flip off his feet. His world spun as he was nearly toss in the air, and next, he felt two hard jabs of a simian hand on his fore and hind ankles.

By the time that Spyro landed back in the ground, his left foreleg and his right hind leg were shaking as if they had taken an electric shock, and soon Spyro was feeling a pain on his joints, as result of the well placed attack of the ape on him.

The purple dragon groaned, as he struggled to get back on his feet, but it was hard with the shaky legs that he had got from this last attack. Meanwhile, the ape got up from the ground, and he walked to the purple dragon, having a smile on his face.

"That last move with your tail was well placed, young dragon." The old ape said to him, and the purple dragon looked back at him. The ape was smiling. "But only because you hit an attack does not mean that you must drop caution and got in for a quick victory. That was what caused your defeat in here, and that could easily cost his life in an actual battle."

Spyro looked back at him, and bowed his head. "Yes, Karuum Nalug." He said humbly, knowing that the words of the ape were precious. However, even then, Spyro could not avoid the feeling of slightly pride on himself as he thought about what he had just accomplished in there.

 _I brought him down to one knee!_ Spyro was practically cheering in his mind, as he knew that this meant that he had evolved in his style of combat. Of course, the ape still won, but the fact that Spyro had been able to land such a significant hit was something that was hard not letting to get to his head.

"Well, I guess that is enough sparring for now." The ape said to the group. "Now, I noticed that some of you were slacking on the battle, and some of you were actually trying to use tactics that were less than honorable." The ape said that with a hard expression on his face. "Like attacking with low moves, and also an intention to make use of some substance to attack the enemy."

As he spoke that, some of the apes in there looked at the ground nervously, a certain female even attempted to hide something within her vests, but it was to no use, since the old ape had already noticed.

"Munduri is an art that can be adapted to your own personal style, but that does not mean that you can simply add your own fair of dirty tricks at will! Munduri is a noble art, and it must be respected as such, and this means fighting it with honor as much as possible, something that some of you seem to have forgotten!"

The ape spoke with a great authority, and the reprobation on his voice was far more powerful and efficient than the greatest wrath, as if was able to cut deep into everyone and let them know their own faults.

"Now, everyone who used some of these tricks in the sparring, you might get out and make ten laps all around the village." He spoke, and immediately some apes started to protest. "And I don't want to hear any 'buts'!" He added, and this made nearly all of the quiet.

"What about the purple dragon?" One of the older apes said, pointing at Spyro, "Shouldn't he do the laps too?"

"Why would he?"

"Because he used his tail to hit you!"

"Yes, and?"

"I mean, it is not fair! All of us have to fight with only four limbs, our two arms and two legs! Including you, Karuum Nalug! The purple dragon has wings and a tail, what make him have a total of seven limbs! This makes him have a unfair advantage!"

Spyro only rolled his eyes in annoyance. Yes, annoyance, because they were bringing up this topic _again_.

The old ape only looked at the younger one, and he said, "I do believe this has already been discussed previously, right?" He asked, and though he was focus on the ape who said that, the way that he talked made it seem that he was saying it to the whole class. "Munduri is an adaptive combat art that can be applied in a special way to everyone who uses it. That also applies to Spyro. It is only natural that he makes use of all of the limbs that he has, it is only the nature of the Munduri. There is absolutely no disrespect for honor or tradition in there."

"But he-"

"Didn't I said I didn't wanted to hear any 'buts'?" The ape asked, and he added, "Only because of that, _you_ will be doing ten additional laps. Now move on, all of you."

The students all bowed their heads, and they all were heading to the exit. In the way out, that particular ape shot a glare to Spyro, as if he was the one who had done that. Spyro only stared back at him with a grumpy face, as if saying: "it was _your_ fault and you know it!" to the ape.

As they left, Karuum Nalug spoke to the ones left in the rut. "As for the rest of you, I have to say you all did very well, as it was to be expected." He said that, and everyone in there chorused:

"Thank you, Karuum Nalug."

"Now, I've seen that you are still holding on fine to the basic teachings." The ape continued, as he walked in front of his students, almost the same way that a general would walk in front of his troop. "This is good, because it means all of you are ready to the most advanced techniques, and that is what we will be seeing today."

It was hard to avoid the thrill of learning something new in the art of Munduri, at least in Spyro's opinion. He already knew a good number of techniques, but it seemed that the old ape knew a nearly limitless amount of them, for every occasionally he showed some that Spyro had never seen before in his life. These were moments that Spyro eagerly waited for, both for the chance of seeing something new and for the chance of maybe learning how to do it.

"Now, I want all of you to focus, and to pay attention in me, because this technique is one that demands attention and to be concentrated in the battle." The grey ape said, and he adopted a position that all of them already knew was the most basic for the Munduri. "This technique is one that demands a lot of finesse, however, like all others in Munduri, it can be adjusted to the particular way of any fighter."

All of the students were focus on the ape as he continued to explain.

"This technique is one that aim to attack the opponent in a way that leaves them disoriented, and to make them lose their ability to stand and to fight." The ape explained, as he shifted his stance, and was now with his other leg ahead, and he moved one arm up, while the other was resting by the side of his body.

"Now, someone try to attack me." The ape said.

The room was silent, as all of the students were hesitant to move forward. They all knew better than to simply advance against the Karuum, for they knew that he could easily sent them flying away the same way he had done with Spyro just moments ago. Still, someone daring to step forward.

This one was Spyro.

The purple dragon was feeling confident with the small victory he had recently achieved by making the ape go into one knee. So, he was feeling a little bold, and he decided to go for it and to try to attack.

The rest of the hut watched as the dragon went forward, and he nearly lunged at the ape, raising a paw and thrusting it forward in one single motion. Karuum Nalug seemed to be able to predict his movement, for he swiftly used his arm to move the attack aside, while his other arm moved about, and moved right in direction to the purple dragon's head.

His wrist stopped in the air, mid-blow, and only a few inches away from the purple dragon's temple.

Spyro looked at the hand, and he saw that the part that was the ape's wrist was mere inches from hitting the side of his head. He could not avoid the feeling of his heart pounding, as he knew that, if that blow had hit, it would send him to the ground, or maybe even make him lose consciousness.

There was a silence in the room, as the ape moved away from the dragon, he turned to the rest of the class, and he said aloud, for everyone to hear. "The head is a vulnerable point, as much as the joints."

The room was silent, as the rest of the room was drinking from the words of the elder ape, and he continued. "A strong punch in the forehead can leave an opponent dazed. A blow into the area of the ear can cause dizziness. A blow to a temple causes great pain that can leave an opponent unable to react. A blow to the back of the head, if hard enough, can cause an enemy to lose consciousness."

The room continued to look at the ape, as he said, "The head is a weak spot, however, it can also be one of the most dangerous places that you can hit." He spoke, "Make one mistake, and you will leave your opponent the perfect change to fight back and to cause massive damage. That is why you need to attack only when you are sure that you can land a strike. For that, you use the strongest part of your fist or your wrists, and you aim for an area of the head that will give you the result you desire. Forehead for daze, ears for dizziness, temples for pain, back for unconsciousness."

The ape looked at all of his class as he explained that. "This is called Kakuma Yakuniki, or 'Head Strike', for being simpler."

"So, it's just whacking someone in the head?" Sparx asked aloud, "Man, I can do that! It is easy!"

There was a heavy silence after these words, and everyone was looking in between the dragonfly and the teacher. The grey ape only looked back at the dragonfly, his expression neutral.

"Easy, huh?" The ape asked, "So, I guess you would not mind coming here and demonstrating, right?"

Sparx was taken back by that, and he looked at the ape, having been left kind of speechless.

"W-what?"

"Yes, come here and try it out. After all, it is just 'whacking in the head', right? Come on, demonstrate it on me?"

The dragonfly didn't moved, he just looked at the ape and around, and it was obvious that he already regretted to having said these words aloud.

"W-well… I mean. I kind of could, but, I have ate less than one hour ago, and getting in a fight could upset my stomach. Besides, I have been having this pain in my left lower wing, and I think I'm falling with a cold-"

"Come over here, young dragonfly." The ape said in a tune that was gentle, but that at the same time left little doubt to how it was going to be. Sparx saw himself with little choice but to go for him.

Spyro had returned to his place, and now Sparx was floating in front of the ape, who stood in front of him with both hands behind his back and looked back at the dragonfly with a neutral expression, as if waiting for him to come with the first move.

"Whenever you are ready." The ape said, and his expression was one that could almost be take as boredom.

Sparx looked around, and after a few moments, he decided to finally make a move. However, as soon as he tried to move in direction to the ape, Karuum Nalug raised his foot, and used it with the same dexterity as if it was his own hand, something that most apes knew how to do, and grabbed Sparx by the tail section, making him cry out as the ape swiftly pinned him to the ground.

He now had Sparx under his foot (quite literally), and he could crush him easily if he actually wanted to.

"Attacking is part of the battle, the other one is reacting." The ape said to the class, and turned his eyes to the dragonfly that he was pinning to the ground. "It is easy to assume that the opponent will not be able to react to an attack, however, in battle, you must expect the enemy to be able to react in speeds and ways that you will not predict, especially if they see you trying to land an attack. So, to make sure that you will be able to hit the enemy, you need a combination of precise timing and careful planning, to make sure that the enemy will not have the chance to attack you back. Because, if they do, than you might be the one who will be going to fall in battle."

"Yeah, okay, I got it." Sparx said, squirming in the grip of the foot of the ape, "Now, would you mind letting me go, I kind of don't enjoy the smell of cheesy foot… Seriously, when you last washed that foot of yours?"

Karuum simply chuckled, he let go of the dragonfly, who soon was getting up, and he turned back to his class. "Now, the main point of this technique is waiting for the best possible moment to apply the attack, and to make it with the right amount of power to achieve the desired result. You can achieve it from several ways, with the most common being inducing the enemy to attack and to advance against you, causing themselves to leave an opening that you will be able to explore to attack. This is something hard to do, and will demand you to keep yourself focused in the battle all the time, and you will have to have a perfect timing in the moment the guard of the enemy is open to attack. After all, the head is a weakness, but most enemies know that, and that is why many, if not all of them, will try to keep guard up in their heads during most of the time. However, if you apply the technique correctly, you are almost guaranteed to be able to cause even the biggest foes to come down in submission."

All of the apes whispered among themselves after the ape was done talking. The most daring of them were already imagining themselves using this technique against a dragon, hitting them in the head so bad that they would come down like a fruit from a tree. Spyro himself was one of them, and he could not help but imagine himself facing a much bigger adult dragon, and forcing them into submission in ways that he had only heard about how his father did in the battles…

"Now, each one of you come forward and practice in the dummy. Would someone get the dummy, please?"

Soon, there was a dummy of an ape in the middle of the room, and each one of the students came forward and stood in front of the dummy, which was not like the regular dummy. Firstly, because it was not a simply dummy that someone would simply use to punch, once it had a full body, complete with legs and arms and a head that resembled the one from an ape. Second, because it was moving, and at the present moment, it was standing in a position that was very similar to the one of Munduri, but much more mechanic, almost robotic, but it seemed to be ready for the battle, and just waiting for others to come at it and fight.

This was a special dummy, which was bring years ago by Gaul's groups after one of their incursions into the lands that had been take by the dragons. That was create by the dragons with their special form of magic, and it was, apparently, use to train their young and their apprentices in the arts of combat. It was one of the interesting things that Gaul seemed to have been bring back as spoil of war to the villages and to the overall lands of dragons.

The dummy was something that had been hard to understand at first, however, once they figured out how it worked and how to make it work on their favor, it became quite popular, along with nearly everything that came from the lands of the dragons as spoils of war. The dummy had soon be taken by Karuum Nalug, as it proved to be useful as something to practice for the students of Munduri.

According to the grey ape, the hardest part was teaching Munduri to the dummy, so it would be able to keep up with the students. However, once it learned, it was now a part of the training on a daily basis.

Of course, there were still people who were quite scared of the dummy, once they believed that it could easily turn on them and start to slaughter the students if it was left unsupervised for a while. Of course, they had the dummy for a little over ten years, and nothing had went wrong yet.

One by one, the students started to spar with the dummy, which reacted much as a real fighter of Munduri. Each student tried to imitate what Karuum Nalug taught them, moving around the dummy, sparring with it for a few moments, waiting for the right moment to try a Kakuma Yakuniki.

Of course, most of them were meet with failure, as the dummy was able to dodge and fight back, or to grab their arms and twist these painfully. Some had a small margin of success, once they were able to pass their hands centimeters away from the dummy's head, or even to slip their hands against the head of the dummy, but they all failed to hit it with a decent blow.

"Spyro, it is your turn." Karuum Nalug said, and soon, the purple dragon was walking forward. He stood in front of the dummy, and bowed his head slightly, in a sign of respect so traditional to that art. The dummy bowed its head back, and soon, they both were in fighting position.

"Begin!"

As soon as Karuum Nalug said these words, the two fighters started to move around each other. The dummy was the first to attack, and it did so by trying to hit Spyro with the ball of its hand, something which Spyro dodged swiftly by slipping to the side. The purple dragon answered with a movement of the paw right into the joint of the elbow, and the dummy reacted as if it was a real fighter.

That was the first of many blows that the dragon and training dummy exchanged, each one fighting with the skill of the same level, and they were constantly at each other's throats, and ready to fight and answer with powerful attacks. Spyro was able to answer and to deliver some blows, but the dummy fought him as if he had exactly the right amount of training to be a true challenge to the purple dragon.

They continued at it for a few minutes, and it was a longer time than the dummy took to defeat any of the other students. However, Spyro barely noticed that, as he continued to fight the dummy with the best that he could, the words of Karuum Nalug were still in his mind.

Move around. Make the opponent come to you. Wait for the perfect opening. Then Strike.

Spyro was following this, and he already knew how to make the dummy come to him so he could do that.

First, he aimed an attack that was to intend to hit, but to make the dummy believe that he was attacking to try to cause him some damage.

It worked, and the attack only scratched the surface of the leg of the dummy, which soon decided to react and to attack Spyro. Just as the purple dragon had expected it to do.

Spyro gave a few steps back, as it let the dummy advance against him. Against a regular enemy, this would cause the one attacking to gain confidence or to be angry at the dragon, what would cause them to attack harder to try to hit. The dummy seemed that it acted as a real fighter (that was one of the reason why it was so good to use to train), as it started to attack Spyro more fervently, as if it was eager to hit Spyro.

Another thing that Spyro has been counting with, and now, Spyro had to wait for the perfect opening.

Not yet. Not yet. Wait a little longer. Could it be… no, it wasn't it. Not yet.

Soon the moment came when Spyro saw an opening, but he would have to be quick and clever. Dodging one attack that the dummy had just tried with the leg, holding the leg, Spyro now expected a comeback from the dummy, and it soon came in the form of a blow from the arm aimed at his neck.

Immediately, Spyro saw his opening. He let go of the leg of the dummy, he moved to the side, dodging the blow from the dummy completely, and he saw the dummy's guard completely open. That was when Spyro finally decided to strike.

In that small window of chance, Spyro raised his paw, and swung it hard and precisely, and soon, the hard part of the base of his paw connected with the face of the dummy.

Many amazed gasps followed that, as Spyro made the dummy move back and wobble, just as it would if it was a real, living opponent. Spyro had managed to make contact with the temple, and the effects of a blow like that would be obvious. The dummy wobbled for a few moments, but it soon regained footing, and it was now turn to Spyro, as if it was facing him.

Spyro looked back at the dummy, and after what seemed to be a few moments of staring contest, the dummy bow to Spyro in a sign of respect of the Munduri. Spyro returned the gesture.

"Well done, young dragon." Karuum Nalug said to him, and Spyro turned to him and bowed his head, while the dummy was now standing in place. Soon, Spyro was walking back to his place among the crowd. He had reasons to feel proud of himself for what he had just accomplished, and many would be really impressed that he had been the only one in the class that managed to land a direct hit into the dummy during the whole training.

However, his sensitive ears picked up the whispering of the other students, and let him know that they were not exactly impressed with him.

"Did he used some trick to manage to hit?"

"Of course he did! If no one else did!"

"Maybe he managed to give some command to the dummy to let him hit."

"I guess that dummy went easy on him because he is a dragon. I mean, that thing _was_ made by dragons, wasn't it? I probably decided that it should let a dragon have some advantage on it, so it held back."

It was envy, and Spyro knew that. Envy and their own preconceptions on dragons /and on Spyro himself, because he was not only a dragon, but a _purple_ dragon. Spyro had already grew used to this kind of thing, but it did not made it any less frustrating than usual. Still, now Spyro felt far too proud of himself to actually give too much attention to whatever they were saying.

First he had managed to land a hit that was able to make the Karuum come down to one knee, something that many other warriors would fight with him a hundred times and not managed to do. Second, he had been the only one on his class to manage to land a hit of an advanced Munduri technique in the dummy.

Spyro had all reasons to be proud of himself, and he knew that his father also would be. Spyro now had something else to share with him, and one more reason to anxiously wait for his return from his last campaign.

"Now, I 'm glad to see that you all are open to the advanced techniques of the Munduri." Karuum Nalug said, "And while it is true that some of you did better than others, I'm proud to say that every single one of you is learning the advanced part of the art. This brings me a great satisfaction."

The ape looked through each one of them with a shine in his eyes that was so common in a teacher that saw his students growing and learning. "Well, this concludes or lesson for today, all of you are free to go back to your daily routines. I hope to see you all in the next class, when we will refine better the techniques that were teach today. The class is dismissed."

"Yes, Karuum Nalug." The class chorused as one as they all bowed their heads to their teacher, and soon, the students were dispersing one by one, forming groups and chatting among themselves as they went to go back to their lives. Spyro was among the ones that stayed behind, as he walked back to his group.

"You did _awesome_ , man!" Sparx said, flying next to the head of his friend, and Spyro smiled back at him. Soon, they noticed someone else approaching them.

"You were really impressive today, young dragon." The grey ape said, "Few times I saw a student be able to learn and apply the Kakuma Yakuniki so well so little time after being taught how to do it. Normally it takes a while of practice to be able to do that. You are really an amazing practitioner."

Spyro could not help but blush a little at the compliment, and he was glad that his scales did not made it clear to others who were looking at his face. "Thank you, Karuum Nalug. You are very kind." Spyro said, and the ape simply shrugged.

"I'm just telling the truth." The ape said to him, and he looked at the members of the group that Spyro was in. "So, how has this little purple dragon been treating all of you so far in this week?"

"Oh, you know the drill, Nalug." One of the apes of Spyro's guard said, dropping the "Karuum term, which was something that, in the culture of the Munduri, was close to "sensei", a term that was used to describe masters and teachers of the art. "This little rascal gets in as much troubles as any teenager does, and sometimes we do have to get into quite a pickle by following him."

Spyro looked away, and he could not help but blush more, and hope that his scales would hide the fact that he was blushing.

Nalug chuckled, and he said, "Yes, I know how teenagers can be. Nothing too new in there, just the usual for the young lads."

"Yeah, the usual thrill." Sparx said, "Purple butt gets in trouble, is bulky babysitters come to save his sorry tail. The use."

"Sparx!" Spyro said to the dragonfly, who only smiled smugly at him. The rest of the group chuckled at this. This kind of scene had already become normal among them, once they all had the chance of knowing Sparx and Spyro, and they had long ago learned how to see past the "purple dragon" thing, and to see Spyro as he truly was: a young lad who actually cared much for the ones around him.

Of course, not everyone thought like that, and that was no secret to anyone.

"Well, I really admire your dedication and talent, young one." Nalug said to the young dragon, "You are still training in your free time, aren't you?"

"Yes, sir." Spyro said, "When I have the chance I practice by myself, and dad helps me practice when he is around the village."

"Quite a partner you have." Nalug said, "I was present during the time your father was learning the practice of Munduri. He was a very promising student in it, much like you. In fact, he was one case of the ones who had managed to perfectly apply the kakuma Yakuniki shortly after being taught it, much like you."

Okay, now Spyro felt even more reasons to feel proud of himself.

"He did a very good work teaching you in the basics, by the way." The grey ape added, "Most of the students I have come with little knowledge of the art of Munduri. You, whoever, came with a very good knowledge of the basic. Gaul could really have become a very good Karuum if the whole situation was different."

"Yeah, dad is really great at Munduri. I guess he is one of the few that could compete with you."

"Yeah, I'm sure he is." Nalug said, and he looked at the young dragon, "Well, I guess that you have more places to be going now, ani't I right? I'll be seeing you in the next class. Continue practicing, it will lead you to true mastery."

"Yes, Karuum Nalug, I will." Spyro said, bowing his head. The ape bowed his head back, and soon, the purple dragon was departing with his group, leaving behind a grey ape that was smiling in a warming way at him.

 _A nice kid. You did a great job raising him, Gaul._

As Spyro went by, a couple apes who stayed behind had saw his interactions with the Karuum, and they were already whispering among themselves.

"Why the Karuum always speaks to him when the class ends?"

"Maybe to give him some tips on how to be better. He does that for the purple dragon more than for anyone else. I thought he didn't had a favorite student."

"All because that purple lizard is under king Gaul's protection." One ape said bitterly, and the other apes around let out mumbles of agreement.

"I'm telling you guys, one day that dragon is still going to bring real problem to all of us, and Gaul will have the fact that he took a dragon under his protection coming back to slap him in the face."

* * *

"Man, what a day!" Spyro said as he walked in the village, his personal guard following him very closely as he walked.

"Yeah, the day in the life of the prince of apes is surely something." Sparx said to the young dragon as he floated right around his left horn. "So, what now, studying some important laws? Etiquette lessons? A date with the princess of the neighbor country? Solving a discussing between two bickering apes in the edge of the village? Maybe a speech for the people to practice when you will be at the throne? What is next in the agenda of prince Spyro?"

Spyrro chuckled, and soon, one of the apes said, "Actually, mister Spyro should be using some time of his day to study some lessons."

"Oh… I kind of hit the spot with the law thing."

"Oh, come on guys, can't I take the day off for now?" Spyro asked, and the apes said:

"Your father made clear that during his absence you should still do the chores that you normally do when he is in the village. This includes using your time to study and to learn as much as you could. After all, these knowledge will be very precious for your future."

 _Yeah, what kind of future a dragon could have in a village of apes_. Spyro through for himself a little bitterly, but he did not risked saying it aloud, for he knew that someone who was nearby could easily misinterpret what he was saying and taking it the wrong way.

Spyro knew that he would have problems to live in the village ever since he learned of the war, of Malefor, and of his own nature as a purple dragon. Of course, the problems only grew as Spyro himself grew older. Spyro was not even fully grow yet, and he already had to look down to make eye contact with most apes in the village. That made most of the apes of the village be even more scared of him, and that was something that Spyro could easily notice only by the way that they behaved around him.

Spyro was still in his growing process, and he was sure that at some point he would start to have the "growth spurts" that were so natural to all of the creatures, and Spyro was sure that were normal for dragons also. If he grew around the size of the dragons that he read about in books, then he was pretty sure that he would have to be careful to even move around the village without breaking anything. It was hard to imagine himself having a life in there once he was a full grow dragon. Even because he was pretty sure that the rest of the village would be too scared of him to even come close.

Still, his father always insisted into him learning all that he could to "contribute with his growing", which included lessons in math, history, and even some political matters. Some lessons that even the other chimps around Spyro didn't had. Still, the purple dragon never complained about them aloud, and he knew that he was not going to start now.

Sighing, Spyro just said, "Fine. But just because I don't want dad pulling at my horns when he comes back and one of you tells him that I have been slacking off with my studies." Spyro said, and soon, the rest of the purple dragon's group was moving in direction to another place of the village, all the while, the rest of the apes in there were looking at them, moving away, and whispering among themselves as they passed.


	4. The Coolest Ape

In that village of apes, each ape had their own hut, and depending on the ape themselves, the huts could be small and humble, or it could be bigger and fancier. It was something that could vary a lot depending on the ape, and this was true including the king.

Gaul had his very own hut in that village, and it was a hut that looked like something fit for the one that was widely recognized by the apes as their king.

This hut was the bigger of them all, looking like it could easily house a family of ten. The walls were made of wood covered with special tissues, but nothing too fancy, since Gaul himself was not very much of a fan of fashion. The roof was made of special water-proof leather, which served to protect the house in case of rains and winds, and it made a very good job. The windows and the doors were covered with tissues as well, and they had no doors, like most of the huts in there. The apes came from a long tribal tradition, so they were used to the lack of doors or windows, once everyone knew and trusted everyone, and so, there was no need for locks or secrets. Maybe it was because Spyro was a dragon and not an ape, but he didn't particularly like the idea of living in something which anyone can come in at any moment. He felt like he didn't had privacy, especially now that he was a young teen.

Still, Spyro had to admit that he was glad to live in that house. The inside was devoid of most decorations, since Gaul had more of a Spartan style. There weren't paintings in the wall, and neither there was any fancy decoration, like expensive vases of colored glass or of exotic shapes. Instead, nearly all of the objects in there had functions. The carpets were in there to soften the ground, the chairs to sit, the table was for sitting and eating. The one thing that called attention, however, were the books.

There was a good deal of books in the hut, gathered in corners on the ground of beaten earth, with a single rug over it to prevent the dirty from ruining them. Some of these books belonged to his father, but most of them had been acquired because of Spyro.

Ever since he had learned how to read, the books had become a gateway to the young dragon. He rarely went out of the tribe, except in the case of some trips in which his father would take him. So, the books were his best and most effective way of having contact with the outside world.

There were all kinds of books in there, provided by Gaul with the resources that he had. A good deal of them were works of fiction, like for instance: "Destiny of Fire", the narration of the legend of the first fire dragon; and "Knight of the Stars", which was a book about a dragon who gained the power of the great stars above and used it to spread life and hope into the world. Of course, there were also other books in there, like for instance: "Poems of Laughs", a collection of comedic poetry that was written by an author of the tribe of the bunnies (that one was a favorite of Spyro when he was having a bad day and needed a good laugh), and also a very interesting book that Spyro has come to like very much: "The Adventures of Crash Bandicoot".

All of these were good readings to pass time, however, now that Spyro was back home with the rest of his guard, he was picking up a different section of books. All of them had plain covers and only showed their titles in the front, titles like: "Mathematical Theory", "Flowers of Medicine", "Stars of Our World", "Beasts of the Wild", "Geography for Beginners", "History of Magic Crystals", and "Populations Around the World".

These books were all educative and informative in nature, and they had not been picked as a way of passing time. Gaul had arranged those books exactly to "help into Spyro's development". Gaul wanted to make sure that Spyro would know all that was needed, and apparently he thought that it was something that he would not learn just from being around the apes. So, he provided all these kinds of books for Spyro to be able to study all the kind of information that could be possible for someone to need.

So, when most apes his age were going around and hanging out with their friends, Spyro was usually following the study regimen that his father prepared for him and was reading and re-reading these books to be sure that he would never forget this information.

Spyro understood that his father made that to make him smart, and he was even able to understand why it was important for him to know about math and about the kinds of flowers in the wild that could be dangerous and that could serve as antidote for the bite of a snake, as well as the kinds of animals that lurked in the jungles. However, he still failed to see how it could be important to know the name of the constellations of the sky and the kind of traditions that were the most common for a tribe that he never saw before in his life.

Still, Spyro accepted this, for it helped him to focus, and it actually helped him to pass his time as he read it. _Besides_ , Spyro thought to himself, as he picked up one book and started to read. _It is not like anyone my age would like to hang out with me, anyway… well, besides Sparx_. He sighed as he sat on the ground and started to read the teachings of the book about math, and he was pretty sure that he had already memorized most of the formulas…

Cubic meters.

Cubic tons.

Divided by…

Multiplied by…

Square.

Spyro was familiar with all of that, and it was easy for him, more so than it would be for most other apes of the village. Not only the ones of his own age, but also most of the adults. Spyro felt like he would ace most of them if there was ever a quiz to this. Still, Spyro doubted that it could actually have a use in his immediate future…

"Man, this is so boring!" Sparx said as he floated around on his back, as if he was laying around, but his wings still buzzed and allowed him to float in the air. Two guards were inside the tent, and they were keeping a close eye to Spyro. The other four were distributed across all of the entrances of the tent, as if to make sure that no surprise attacks would come over the young dragon while he was studying.

"Yeah, I have to agree." Spyro said. "I hope dad brings more books. I already read all of the new ones that he had brought."

"You seriously want more books?" Sparx said to the young dragon. "I mean, every normal teenager would want a mascot, or a skateboard, or some sick accessory to impress the ladies."

"Yeah, but I'm not a normal teenager." Spyro said without taking his eyes off the book. "At least not in this village."

There was a silence following this, as Sparx realized, too late, that he had touched the wrong subject. The guards only shared a look among them as they continued to watch the young purple dragon. Spyro focused on the book for a while, before he moved on to another book.

Followed by another, and another.

It was all for a while, and all the time, Spyro focused himself in the words that were written on his books to prevent himself from thinking at other subjects. Books were like a refuge to Spyro, for they helped him escape from the problems that troubled him, and they allowed him to forget what he constantly faced living among a tribe that was afraid of him.

However, his reading was interrupted when someone's voice resounded in the outside of the tent.

"What do you want?"

It was one of the guards, and by the tone of his voice, it seemed that he had stopped someone who just came. This caught Spyro's attention, as he raised his head and started to hear with more interest.

"Relax, man, we don't want trouble." A voice said, a younger one, who owned that voice was probably a teenager, but not much older than this.

"Answer the question." The guard said once more. "What is your business here?"

"We came here to see Spyro."

Now that _really_ caught Spyro's attention.

Someone had come to see him? And they were referring to him by his name, instead of calling him "the dragon" or "that purple reptile"?

"What is your business with young Spyro?"

"Well, we'd like to see if he wanted to hang out with us." The young voice said. "We heard that he didn't have anything planned for today, so we decided to come see him and ask if he wanted to spend some time with us."

Spyro could barely believe what he was hearing. Someone had come to invite _him_ to spend time with them? That hadn't happened since… ever!

Spyro left the book in the ground, having already forgotten about it as he dashed in direction to the entrance from which the sound was coming. By getting out, Spyro could see what was going on.

One of the guards had his weapon in his hands, and he seemed as if he was ready to fight. In front of him, Spyro could see a group of five apes, all older than him by two or three years, and among them, was a particular ape with greenish-brown fur on his body, and with the fur on his head parted in a way that it seemed to be a Mohawk.

Spyro knew that ape! He was Zeggor. He was an ape who had some fame among the rest of the young apes in the village. He was famous for being quite a rebellious ape and for being good in nearly anything that he did. There were stories all around the village about him, telling that he had once collected around three hundred heart cashews all by himself, that he once won a battle with a river snake, that he once was able to sneak all across the swamp and come back in one piece.

The guy was a legend! He was the most popular young ape from the whole village. All of the girls in the village let out lovesick sighs when he came near, and all of the guys in the village wanted to be him, Spyro himself included.

"Come on, now." Zeggor said. "We just want to see… Spyro! Hey!" The young ape said and waved to the purple dragon as soon as he saw him. Spyro was paralyzed for a moment as he looked at him, unsure of how to answer. All he could do was raise his paw and wave back.

"Dude! I was hoping to see you before you left for some other place." He said to the young purple dragon. "I was hoping you had not, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to invite you to come to the forest with us."

Spyro blinked, and he looked at the ape in front of him.

The most popular ape of the village. The ape that all of the young apes wanted to be with and of whom they all wanted to be friends. The ape who was so popular that he and Spyro never actually talked to each other before in their whole lives.

He was in there, and he was asking for _Spyro_ to come and to hang out with him and his crew.

"Huh..?" Was all that Spyro was able to mumble, and Zeggor smiled at him.

"Yeah, dude! We are going to the forest to spend some time in our spot. We were wondering if you wanted to come with us, right guys?" He asked his crew, and they all agreed with him.

"Y-you want me to..?" Spyro said, starting to get a grip on this, but still having some problems to actually believe it.

"Yeah, so, you wanna come?" Zeggor asked again, looking at Spyro expectantly. The purple dragon continued to look at him for a few moments, before he finally seemed to realize that he needed to say something, and he started to speak.

"Yes!" He nearly blurted out, but he now was trying to be a little more composite. "I-I mean… I-it would be really nice. I mean… Sure, I want." Spyro finally said, adopting a position and tone that he considered to be neutral. Zeggor smiled at him, as if he approved.

"So, let's go?"

"Sure, lead the way." Spyro said, and stepped forward, but he was stopped on his tracks when the guard stepped on his way.

"Young master Spyro, what about your studies?" He asked, and Spyro looked at him, and back at Zeggor, who was looking back at him with a raised eyebrow. "King Gaul was very clear that you should not slack on anything during his absence, and this includes your studies."

Spyro looked up at him, and he gave a look back at Zeggor, who was now shrugging.

"Oh well, I guess you are too busy then." He said casually as he turned around. "Maybe another time. Let's go guys." He was starting to leave, and his whole crew along with him. Panicked surged on Spyro at this.

All his life, he had never been invited to anything by someone who was his own age. Even less by someone who was so popular like Zeggor. For him to actually be invited to anything was something that was new to him, and Spyro heard enough around the village to know that if Zeggor invited you to something you could not turn him down.

He was the coolest ape of the tribe, and if you just were with him, you could become cool by association. For Spyro, that was a chance of actually starting to become popular, a chance of finally being accepted among the other young apes, like he never was before on his life. That was a chance that he could not let slip through his claws!

"Zeggor, wait!" Spyro shouted, making the ape turn to look at him, along with his crew. "I… I can go with you! Right now!"

"Master Spyro…" The guard started to say, but Spyro cut him off.

"Look, I already read those books many times, and I'm pretty sure that I have them all memorized, and if you try to make a quiz to me about anything on any of them I know that I'll ace it. I have been on this routine for how long now? I have never slacked before, and I have pretty much stayed in home a good part of my days without having anything to do. I think I do deserve a little break to hang out with someone who actually came here to invite me for something. So, today I'm taking a break from studying."

"But king Gaul…" The ape tried to say, but Spyro cut him off again:

"I'll talk to dad when he comes back and tell him that it was my decision to skip study. You can leave for me to deal with him."

There was a silence as the guards shared looks among them, and there was a lot of expectation as the guards seemed to ponder on letting or not Spyro go. Luckily, Sparx quickly came to help.

"Come on, dudes!" The dragonfly said as he attracted the attention of the guards. "Spyro spends his day in here, bored beyond belief, and he is supposed to just refused someone's invitation to have a good time so he can continue bored? I don't know about Gaul, but I would not be very satisfied if I knew that the guys I hired to protect my son were forcing him to be miserable."

There was another brief silence, and one of the guards said: "Well, young Spyro indeed has always been diligent with all of his studies and compromises."

This seemed to be enough.

"Okay, I guess you can go." Spyro smiled at this, but his smile was short lived when the ape said: "We are going to accompany you, as always. And this is _not_ up for discussion. King Gaul was clear about we going with you anywhere."

Spyro looked at Zeggor, and he was expecting the ape to actually make some kind of excuse for not taking Spyro, once he probably would not want some adults coming with his crew, especially if they were Spyro's bodyguards, who were so efficient and diligent in all that they do. No one would feel comfortable with big and armed apes watching their every move.

However, Zeggor only looked at Spyro expectantly. "So, you coming, Spyro?"

Spyro looked at him.

"Y-yes. I'm coming."

"Great! Let's go." He said, and Spyro was actually able to smile again.

"Yeah! Finally, something fun to do!" Sparx said, and soon, the guards were getting ready to follow Spyro in another of his adventures outside of the tent.

It took only two minutes, but soon, Spyro was walking out of the tent, with his guard following him from behind, Sparx buzzing by his side, and this time, he was actually surrounded by apes who were close to his own age and who had asked him to come with them.

Spyro looked around at the apes who were smiling at him and even talking with him about things. They were mostly questions about how were things, and about what was like to be the son of King Gaul. However, no matter how trivial these questions could see to anyone who heard them, to Spyro they meant a lot.

As they walked and talked, they moved away from the village, and they were now starting to walk in direction to a nearby forest. It was around the same direction of the trees that gave the heart cashews, but it was also a different path, one that led to a great mass of trees from many different species and very close to each other. It was a true forest, right outside of the small village.

That forest was the kind of place in which apes would go in groups, for it was said to be filled with all kinds of wild beasts that would not hesitate into pouncing into an unsuspecting creature that was going there. Not only that, but the great mass of trees made it somewhat easy to get lost in there, as much as it was in the swamp where Sparx lived. There were even rumors about that forest being either cursed or haunted, or maybe both things at the same time.

Anyway, it was not the kind of place where someone would come on their own only for the shake of it. The hunters went in there, of course, to get some meat for the village, and of course, some other apes went in there without any hesitation and without any kind of fear. Gaul, for instance, said to be the biggest ape who ever lived, and also famous for his bravery and strength, when Spyro was younger, he used to think that his dad could do anything, what was, of course, normal for any young kid who looked up at their fathers.

The forest was serious business, of course, and the younger apes tended to stay away from there and not go in there alone, if not for any confirmed danger, than just for the rumors that went about the forest and the things that happened in there. Of course, Zeggor was not one of these apes. One of the reasons he was so popular in the village among the young apes was because he seemed completely unafraid of going into the forest, and he had always come back from it unscratched, always with some amazing story to tell others about an adventure that he had lived in there, like for instance, one time that he was forced to fight for his life with two big saber lions and was able to escape right under their muzzle.

Spyro himself had never been in there, but he heard all kinds of stories that were related to the forest and to the things that Zeggor had lived and done in there, and about how he was able to escape to live another day. Spyro found these stories amazing, and he often wondered what would be like to be able to be with Zeggor during these adventures, even though he knew that he would most likely be of little use in these situations.

"… so, as the son of the king of apes, that technically makes you a prince, right?" one of the apes who was with the group asked Spyro. "That gotta be awesome."

"Yeah, well… I think it is." Spyro said to him. It was kind of a new thing for him to have someone talking to him like that. "I mean… I never got royal treatment of anything. Dad is not much into this 'royal privilege' thing, I guess he don't want me to become one of those spoiled brats."

"Still, being the son of the king must have a few perks." Another ape said. "You can probably get your father to bring you anything you want when he comes back."

"Yeah, dad does bring me some gifts when he returns." Spyro said, "But it also has some small things…" he added, and looked over his shoulder, looking at the guards who were following the group of teens right behind. "Like have a full-time team of babysitters following your every move."

"Yeah, I noticed that." Zeggor said. "By the way, I wanted to talk to you about this." Zeggor added as he approached the young dragon and started to whisper, as if he wanted to be sure that the guards were not going to listen.

"You know, we kind of like to do things without anyone telling us we can or can't. We like to move free. To walk how we want. To go where we want. We like to do whatever we want without someone patronizing us all the time. After all, we are not chimps anymore, right?" He said to Spyro, and the purple dragon looked up to him.

"So, having these guys following us would kind of cut our fun short, because they surely will want to prevent you from doing anything 'dangerous' because your father asked them to."

Spyro could not help but agree with every word that Zeggor had just said. Of course that these apes were not going to let Spyro do anything that they would consider dangerous, as they tried to prevent him from getting the heart cashews earlier (well, Spyro had been badly spanked by vines due to daring to do that, but that was not the point), and Spyro knew that he could not be cool if he had this group of apes following him and treating him like a baby.

"I mean, sure your father worries, after all, he is a father." Zeggor continued to say, "But you gotta admit that it is not cool being followed like that. These guys surely would not let you do anything fun." He spoke, and Spyro immediately agreed with all that he was saying.

"So… if you want to walk with us, we gotta find a way to get those guys off our heels." Zeggor spoke, and Spyro knew exactly what it meant. He also knew that he had no other choice but to find a way of losing his guard if he wanted to have a chance to hang around with Zeggor and his crew.

"I know." Spyro said back to him immediately, "I really can't stand these guys all the time. We gotta lose them." He said, and then another voice came in with a little buzzing of insect wings.

"I totally agree!" Sparx said, getting the attention of the two. "Those guys really don't know much about fun. We need to get them off our tails, and luckily, my dear purple-butted friend and me have some techniques for this…"

* * *

The guards continued to follow the group in front of them for a while, and they all noticed that the group in front of them suddenly seemed to be getting full of secrets, and that was something that made them quite suspicious, especially when they saw the golden, glowing point that was Sparx floating along with Spyro and seeming to join the little whispering that was going on…

They continued for a while, and then, the little flying, glowing dot that was Sparx suddenly moving away.

"Man, I'm hungry!" Sparx said, "I'm gonna grab a few berries, be back in a few!" He said and flew away, and the guards shared looks among themselves.

"Just how much that little thing can eat?" One of the guards asked.

"I don't even know where he puts that much food." Another one said.

"This smells fishy…" Another one said, and this one had a suspicious expression on his face.

There was a brief moment of interlude, a few minutes actually, before they suddenly heard a very loud sound piercing the air. It was shrieking, but it was a scream, of that there was no doubt.

It was Sparx.

"Sparx!" Spyro cried out as he immediately rushed to the place where the scream had come for, what startled the whole group. The teens stayed where they were, but the guards wasted no time and started to follow the purple dragon as he nearly dived into the vegetation.

"Young Spyro!" The guard called out as they started to move across the vegetation and the many trees that there were on the way. "Young Spyro, wait!"

"Didn't you heard this scream!?" Spyro called, panic on his voice as he continued to dash across everything on his way. "Sparx is in danger! I gotta help him!"

"At least wait for us!" The guard said, as the six apes continued to move after the young dragon, passing with some difficulty by the vegetation on the way and dodging the trees. Spyro was far more agile than they were, and he was able to open a good distance between himself and the apes who were following him. Not only that, but the dense vegetation of that part of the forest also made it hard for the apes to follow his movements, and they had actually just lost sight of him.

That was just perfect.

Looking behind and seeing the guards so behind of himself, Spyro smiled. He looked at his side, and saw Sparx, well and glowing, buzzing by his side as he smiled as well. They just needed to nod to each other to start off their plan.

In that moment, Spyro dodged and hid behind a tree, while Sparx continued to buzz his way, making sure to hit a lot of vegetation, to mimic the sounds that a young dragon would do while running across that dense vegetation.

"Young Spyro!"

"Spyro, wait for us!"

The voices continued, and Spyro remained as still and silent as he could as he pressed his back against the tree he was hiding, and soon, the guards passed by him. Spyro knew because he saw glimpses of them as they dashed right past his hiding spot, completely failing to notice his presence in there, and chasing the sounds that were being produced by the runaway Sparx, thinking that the purple dragon was making them.

Spyro waited until they were out of sight and out of hearing, and he sighed, before chuckling a little. Spyro knew that he was going to make them very worried with this, and that they were not going to be happy when they discover that they had been tricked. Still, Spyro could not help but feel somewhat proud of himself as he had managed to trick the six adult apes into doing what he wanted.

Spyro smiled as he got out of his hiding spot and he started to make the travel back to the path where he had come. It took a while of walking, but Spyro was easily able to find the path even among the dense vegetation, mostly due to his good senses. Soon, he was approaching the point from where they had first departed.

"Are you sure about this, boss?"

"I sure am!" Said Zeggor's voice as Spyro approached. "Just you guys wait and see, it will be great!"

"But, are you sure that we need that-"

Whatever the other ape was going to say was lost, as the young purple dragon emerged from the vegetation, making the group turn to him.

"And this is how you lose a babysitter!" Spyro said proudly, and the group all looked at him, and Zeggor had a great smile at his face.

"Awesome, dude!" He said, walking to Spyro and patting his shoulder. "That was a great plan! Almost as good as my own plans. And the way that you pulled it off, flawless!" He said as he placed an arm around Spyro's shoulders, and he turned to the group. "Come on guys, he made awesome! Give him some clapping!"

The group was lost for a moment, but soon, all of the apes in there was clapping at Spyro, as if he was a main character who just did an amazing scene on the stage.

Spyro looked around, barely believing that this was all for him. He could feel his face heating, and be was truly hoping that the scales that he had were helping to hide his blush.

"You were truly amazing, my purple friend." Zeggor said as he continued with an arm around the purple dragon's shoulders. "You have potential, that much I can say! Walk with me and you might learn a few more things that will make you nearly as awesome as me." He said, and the purple dragon only looked at him and give him a kind of dumb smile in answer, and the ape finally let go of his shoulders. "Well, since we lost those guys, I think we better go now, before they find us again."

The group agreed, and they were all getting ready to leave. Spyro was about to follow their lead, when he remembered one thing.

"Wait! We can't go yet." He said, making the group stop and look at him. "We need to wait for Sparx."

"Who?" Zeggor said, and suddenly he remembered. "Oh, the dragonfly."

"Yeah, we have to wait for him. He will be losing them and then he will come back to meet us."

Everyone in the group shared looks among themselves, and after a while, Zeggor decided that it was better to just say it.

"Yeah, about that… I think we cannot wait for him."

"No, we can." Spyro said. "Sparx probably won't take long to lose them, and they will take a long time to find the trail again. Sparx is really good in-"

"Okay, let me stop you there." Zeggor said. "You are not quite following, so I better explain. Okay, you see, the thing is that, we are not the kind of crew who walks with bugs."

Spyro looked at him, as if he was trying to understand what Zeggor just said to him. "Look, is not like I have a problem with the little buzzing guy, or with you being his friend." Zeggor quickly added in his defense, "But is just that, that guy is not the kind of guy who would be cool enough to walk with us, and we need to keep a certain standard in the ones who come with us to hang out, and the little guy don't reach the standard, not like you."

Spyro looked at him, and he was starting to get a grip on what the ape was saying. "Wait… so, if I start going out with you guys I need to stop seeing Sparx?"

"No, of course not." Zeggor said, "You are a free ap- dragon, and you can hang out with however you want on your own time. I just saying that, if you are hanging out with us, that little bug can't come along. I mean, he might be your friend, but he doesn't belong in our crew. You on the other hand, surely does."

Spyro blinked at him, and he took a while to say something. "So… if I want to walk with you guys, I can't bring Sparx along?"

"You catch things fast, dude." Zeggor said to him with a smile. "Look, we all know that up until today, that little guy was your only friend, but you got new friends now, and you can hang out with us on one day and with him in another, but you can't hang out with all of us at the same time. That is how it is. I'm sorry, but you will have to stop spending so much time with the buzzing guy." He said to Spyro, and the purple dragon looked at him as he offered him his hand, and smiling to Spyro. "So, let's keep going?"

Spyro only looked at the ape, and after a few moments, Zeggor retreated his hand, and causally shrugged. "Of course, if you have problems with this, I totally understand. Well, I guess not everyone wants to hang out with us, anyway." He said, and was now starting to walk away, and in this moment, Spyro panicked.

"Wait!" Spyro blurted out, and Zeggor stopped, looking over his shoulder at the dragon, who stood in there for a few moments, and he started to say:

"M-maybe I have been spending too much time with Sparx… I-I mean…" Spyro said, barely believing that these words were actually going to come out of his mouth. "I guess I can stop being around him that much. I-I can explain to him later. He is my friend; he will understand… I think…"

Zeggor smiled as he continued to look at the purple dragon over his shoulder. "Of course he will." He said to him, "After all, friends are for things like that right? So, let's go?"

Spyro looked over him. He looked over his shoulder, as if he was expecting Sparx to show up from the woods at any moment, but the little dragonfly didn't come. Spyro turned back to Zeggor, and he spoke: "Y-yes. Let's go."

Zeggor smiled at this, and soon, the group was moving away from that spot. As they moved, Spyro could not help but continue to look at the place they were, and he was really starting to feel bad because of this.

Going out with Zeggor was a chance that Spyro was having of maybe becoming more popular within the tribe, and to finally start to be accepted. Still, the young purple dragon never imagined that, to become popular, he would actually need to jeopardize his first and, currently only friend. The young purple dragon had made that decision in a rush, and now it was starting to make him think that he should have gave it a little bit more thought.

However, Spyro knew that, in the long run, it would be good for him. He would not stop seeing Sparx, he would just not spend as much time with him as before. He would also hang out with Zeggor, and this would make his life in the village a little better. Besides, Spyro was sure that he could talk with Zeggor a little better over this subject, and he knew that he could convince the ape to at least give Sparx a chance. After that, maybe he could be hanging with both his old and new friends in a single gang. It sounded like a good plan…

As they walked, they moved deeper and deeper in the forest, and the sounds of it were getting more intense as the forest became more and more alive around them, and the trees were becoming more numerous, with then light now having some difficulty to go into the place, casting it into a near-shadowy environment, that made it look somewhat weary, making it kinda scary.

However, the apes in the group continued to walk as if they were just making a walk into the plains. It seemed that they had already come in there before and gone back unscratched, was what Spyro thought. He, on his end, never come to that part of the forest, for it was "too dangerous". His father made it clear for the guards that Spyro was supposed to avoid that part of the forest, as well as other places that could be dangerous to him. Of course, the guards obeyed diligently and prevented Spyro from going into the deep woods.

However, the guards were no longer there, and Spyro was left with the crew that soon would become his own. They walked in direction to the deep woods, and Spyro felt scared, but he also felt somehow trilled for being in there. Even though he was mostly scared… Maybe 65%.

Spyro continued to follow the group, and the silence was broken when Zeggor spoke loud enough for Spyro to hear:

"So, Spyro." He said, making the purple dragon perk and look at him. "We are all really glad that you came here with us."

"Y-you are?" Spyro asked, sounding almost like a child.

"Of course." Zeggor said to him, offering a smile. "We are the coolest lot, so we should only be glad that someone cool like you are with us, right guys?" He asked, and the rest of the crew all agreed with him.

"I-I am cool?" Spyro asked, barely believing it.

"Of course!" Zeggor said once more. "You are the son of our king, and you are the kind of guy who is never afraid of anything! That is the very definition of cool on my books." He explained as he continued to smile at the young purple dragon. "A guy like that, who is so cool, surely belongs with a cool group. That is why we want you to hang out with us more."

Spyro looked up at him, and a spark of hope was on his chest. "Y-you are inviting me to be one of you guys?"

"Well, yeah." Zeggor said. "Like I just said, a cool guy belongs into a cool group." He repeated, and he continued to walk. "All you need to do is pass by your initiation."

"Initiation?" Spyro asked, looking at him.

"Yeah. It is a thing that everyone of our group has to do to prove their value. It is like a baptism. Of course, since you are so cool, it is merely a formality."

"R-right! And, when it is going to be this?"

"Now." Zeggor said, and this surprised the young purple dragon. "Why do you think we are coming here for? Your initiation will be right in this part of the forest."

"O-oh. Right." Yeah, it made sense… kinda… "And… what will it be?"

Zeggor only smiled at him, and said: "You will know as soon as we get in there. For now, you just need to know that it will be a proof of your bravery and your wits. Do you have those things, right?"

"Of course!" Spyro said automatically, and Zeggor only smiled back at him. They resumed walking in silent, and as they walked, the forest around them became even darker and more ominous, and Spyro felt a creeping feeling in the back of his head and all the way to the tip of his tail. Still, he steeled himself and continued to walk. He had to prove that he was as brave as them, otherwise, it could ruin his chances of becoming member of the group.

"Here we are." Zeggor said as he came into a halt, and the rest of the group followed suit. Spyro didn't knew where they were now, but he knew that it was deep in the forest. The area had many trees, and it was somewhat dark due to the canopies of the trees blocking the light, and Spyro looked around, and he could notice that they had stopped very near a cave, which looked big and dark.

"Spyro, this is the place of your initiation." Zeggor said.

"Oh, here?" Spyro asked, looking around. Zeggor pointed to the cave.

"Well, in there, to be more precise." He explained. "For your initiation, you will have to go inside that cave."

Spyro looked at the cave. It looked a little intimidating, and that was something that Spyro could easily notice. Still, it didn't seem all too bad… as long as the cave was empty.

"So, I just go in there?" Spyro asked, and Zeggor answered:

"Yeah, pretty much. Oh, but I recommend you to do it carefully, because there is an owlbear living inside."

Spyro felt his heart skipping a bit as he heard these words. There were all kinds of beasts in the world, and in these regions, the owlbears were known to be among the most dangerous. They were big predators who were famous for their aggressiveness and for being extremely territorial. They were said to maul anything that was foolish enough that came to their lair, and they would never stop until the thing was either dead or too far away for them to chase.

All of the hunters and gatherers knew that if there was an owlbear around, then you should be careful to never get on their territory or between them and what they wanted.

Most of all: you should never, ever, ever, EVER enter the cave where they lived.

"A-a-an o-owlbear?" Spyro stammered as he took another look at the cave.

"Yeah, an owlbear. Don't worry, the guys are nocturnal, it is sleeping now. You just have to sneak in there without waking it up."

"B-but is an owlbear." Spyro said, "I-if it wakes up…" The urple dragon didn't had the courage to finish that sentence, and Zeggor only waved it away.

"Well, it would not be your initiation if it was something easy to be done. Also, you don't have to worry, we have all done that already."

"We have?" Someone said, and this person soon said: "Oh, yes, of course! It was so long ago that I forget it sometimes, hah!"

Spyro continued to look in between the cave and Zeggor, and the ape was looking at Spyro, expectantly. A mental battle was going on the purple dragon's head, and after a few moments, it seemed that one of the sides had won:

"I… I'll do it." Spyro said, trying his best to sound brave and determined. Zeggor smiled at him.

"Great! But you have to go into the very place where the owlbear is, deep inside the cave." He explained to the purple dragon. "You won't believe how many guys only go a little in the entrance and come back claiming to have complete the initiation. You will have to prove to us that you went to where the owlbear is."

"H-how do I prove it?"

"You see, in that cave there are a lot of glowing gems. They are in the deep, where the owlbear sleeps." The ape explained. "To prove to us that you went all the way, you will have to take one of the gems out of there and bring it back to show us. Can you do that, buddy?"

Spyro looked at him, and once more he looked at the cave. Every instinct of his body was telling him that this was a bad idea. All that he read and was taught told him _not_ to go into the cave of an adult owlbear. The feeling on his guts was telling him that it was not worth it, and that he should turn tail and leave that place.

However, there was another voice that talked to him. A voice that told him that this could be his chance of finally having someone other than his father wanting him around in despite of his purple scales. His chance of walking around with other apes his own age and to actually make some new friends. His chance to be seen as something more than just a purple dragon who had been adopted by the king.

His chance of being accepted.

That voice had a very powerful influence on Spyro.

"A-alright!" Spyro said, and Zeggor only smiled in return.

Soon, Spyro was standing right in front of the cave, and he was trying to prevent his body from shaking, even though the movements of his tail betrayed his emotions.

The purple dragon looked at the entrance, and he looked back, at the apes who were gathered behind and looking at him. All of them were looking with expectation, and Zeggor was the one who had a smile on his face as he gave Spyro a "thumbs up".

Spyro nodded at him, and turned his head back at the cave, which seemed even darker and more ominous up close. Swallowing the lump that was forming on his throat, Spyro gave the first hesitant step ahead.

Spyro was actually going to do that. And his good sense was promising to kick his tail for that.

The purple dragon gave one step after the other, as he started to walk in direction to the depths of the cave. The only light came from the entrance, so Spyro found himself in a darker and darker environment as he dwelled deeper in that cave.

Spyro could hear his own breathing and his own heartbeat, being even more aware of them than he normally was. His breathing seemed to be louder than he remembered, and Spyro was now trying to control it, as if a single exhaling could be heard from several miles away. His heart was beating a bit too loudly too, Spyro was now asking himself if the hearing of the owlbears was good enough to hear a heart beating too hard…

It didn't help that the darkness of the cave made his hearing all the more sensitive, and Spyro was only even more aware of himself as he kept moving.

The darkness was near total, and Spyro had difficulty to see anything more than a few inches beyond his snout. Still, he continued to walk forward, and the sound of his claws tapping the floor at each step he gave sounded almost like a battalion marching to his ears.

Soon, Spyro started to see something ahead.

There was something glowing deeper into the cave.

His head perked as he saw that, and he started to move a little faster, but still being as silent as he could as he approached. That distant seemed to take an eternity to be crossed, and as Spyro approached, that glow grew in intensity, and Spyro could notice that it was somewhat ghostly and eerie, making it look almost like something that was not from this world.

Still, Spyro only cared about approaching more. He knew that it was probably the gems that Zeggor had spoken about, and Spyro had to get one of them to prove that he had been in there. It was the only way that he would pass and effectively become a part of Zeggor's group. This was what was going to make his life in the village better. This was what would prove to everyone that he was not just "the purple dragon". This was what… what…

What was that smell?

Spyro got distracted by the foul smell that was on his nose, and he stopped just about he was to trip into something. Something big, and furry…

Spyro felt his blood freezing in his veins as he looked over and saw the creature who that appendage belonged to. It was a big and bulky creature that dwarfed Spyro in comparison. The creature was possible as big as his father, or maybe even bigger! It was covered in dense and thick fur, and underneath it Spyro assumed that it was mostly muscle. The figure moved very slightly as it was breathing, and Spyro now was asking himself if that loud breathing that he had been hearing was this one or of the owlbear.

Spyro felt himself trembling, and beads of sweat were running down his features. He moved as carefully as he could, placing one leg after the other above that outstretched limb, and he tried his best not to touch it, and not to make a single sound as he moved. He even held back the sigh of relief when he passed by the limb without touching it.

Spyro was still shaken, but he remembered himself of the reason why he was in there, and he turned back to the source of the glow.

What he saw was something quite breath-taking.

The walls and the ceiling of the cave were decorated with these many glowing gems. They were in colors that ranged from light-blue to the violet, and each one of them had their own glow. For a moment, Spyro asked himself if they were some of the magic crystals that dragons were famous for using, and which his father sometimes brought as spoils from the battles. However, Spyro soon saw that they were different. These gems did not give him the same feeling that the crystals did, even though Spyro had the feeling that they were special on their own.

The light that they shone was phantasmagoric, and it gave the place a hint of supernatural. Spyro could not help but think to himself how lovely the light that they had actually was.

Spyro needed to get these gems to prove that he was in there.

Walking to the walls, Spyro looked at each individual gem, and as he looked, he noticed that the gems glowed in different ways, with some having more intense glows, and others being subtler. Some of them even glowed as if they were forming shapes inside of them. Sometimes it seemed like a half-moon, and others it looked as if it had stars inside.

Spyro eventually found one that really caught his attention. It was one of a violet-blue coloration, and if you looked it the right way, it was almost as if there was a swirl of mist in the inside.

That one really caught Spyro's attention.

It was the one that he was going to take.

Nudging the gem with is paws, Spyro saw that it was stuck, but he was determined to take it out of there.

When one paw was not enough, Spyro balanced on his hind legs and used both of his front paws/hands to grab and pull at the gem. It seemed to be really stuck in there. It would take more effort to pull it out.

Spyro huffed and grunted as he pulled and twisted, trying to get that glowing stone free of the wall. He barely noticed that he was making increasingly more noise.

Finally, the gem came out.

Spyro tumbled into the ground as the gem just popped out of the wall, making quite a noise as the stone wall broke and the purple dragon went to the ground.

All this noise made the creature that was sleeping in there move and stir.

Spyro was getting up when he saw that the owlbear was getting up as well.

Spyro felt as if his heart had stopped, and he looked at the owlbear that rose. Spyro could, for a moment, take a glimpse of the features of the bear, which made it look somewhat like an owl.

The creature raised and let out a sound that you would expect from an angry animal. That sound resounded in Spyro's guts, and it made him shake even more, as he expected the creature to turn at him and attack.

However, it seemed that someone up there liked the purple dragon. For the owlbear, as if not even noticing Spyro's presence, just moved its body, and laid itself lazily on the ground once more.

Seconds become minutes, and Spyro convinced himself that the creature had somehow just went back to sleep.

The purple dragon was barely even able to believe it. For a long moment, he just stood in there as he had seemingly forgotten about what he had come to do in there.

Spyro remembered as soon as he looked at the gem he had on his paw, round and with that ghostly mist in the inside.

Shaking it off, Spyro finally returned to his quest, and now, he was moving to get out of there. As silently as he could.

Spyro even held his breath as he passed by the owlbear again.

As he walked in direction to the exit, Spyro could not help but give occasional glances at the gem that he had just recovered. It was something really beautiful. Maybe Zeggor and the others will let him keep it after he showed it to them?

As he walked, Spyro could see the light of the gems fading, and then there was darkness. However, the glow of the one gem that he held was giving him an illumination that he didn't had before. He continued to walk, until he could see the light of the day in the other end of the tunnel.

Spyro felt himself giving a sigh of relief, as he could see that light.

He had done it.

He had actually done it.

He went all the way and was coming back with his proof.

Spyro could barely contain himself to just run forward and scream to his new crew that he had done it and was now one of them…

"I told you that purple lizard was not going to make it." Spyro hears someone say, and it made him stop for a moment to hear.

"Maybe he is still coming back with one gem."

"Did you heard the sound? Surely he awoke the owlbear and it probably is eating him now. Not that it is a bad thing, though."

Zeggor clicked his tongue. "Yeah, I really thought that the purple lizard could do it. I guess he was just useless anyway."

Spyro continued to hear, and the apes were none the wiser that he was listening to them.

"Well, now I guess I'll just have to find something else to give to my girl." Zeggor said as he stood.

"Well, the idea of trying to use the purple dragon to get one of these gems was good." Another ape said, "too bad that he got himself killed."

"Yeah, I'm even surprised on how easy it was to convince him." Zeggor said. "Man, that lizard really thought that we were going to let him walk around with us."

"Yeah… but, wouldn't he had gotten mad when he found out that we were not?"

"So what? He would be in so much trouble with the guards and with king Gaul that he would not have chance to get revenge on us. And if he said anything, we would just deny it. After all, how would believe in the word of a purple dragon if a lot of apes said otherwise?" Zeggor said, and he punctuated it with a laugh, and the other apes followed his suit.

Spyro felt numb as he heard that. He just stood in there as the apes laughed, unable to think or to react as his mind trying to take a grip on the revelation that he just had. As soon as he processed what he found out, he felt a surge of fury starting to build up on him, making him feel like a volcano ready to erupt.

"You. Bastard!" Spyro said, startling the apes and make them all turn to him, all of them with surprise expression on their faces.

For a long moment they just looked at him, as the dragon looked back at them with hate on his eyes.

Zeggor was the one who was able to break the silence as he spoke:

"Spyro!" He spoke as he opened his arms, as if welcoming him, and he had on his face a big smile. The fakest one that Spyro had ever seen. "Man, we were all getting worried with you! When we heard that sound we thought the worse! It is so good to see your face again!"

Spyro felt his rage rising even more at how fake that ape was.

"You think I didn't hear?" Spyro nearly growled, and the smile disappeared from Zeggor's lips. "You were using me!"

Zeggor now looked somewhat afraid, along with the other apes. They started to give steps forward as Spyro started to give steps on his direction.

"All that talk about wanting me to join your crew! It was all a lie! You just wanted me to go in there and get a gem for you!" Spyro said in anger, his voice raising in volume with each sentence.

"C-come on now." Zeggor said, as the other apes were starting to gather around him in fear. "L-let's not jump to conclusions, dude."

"You were using me to get a gem that you could gift to someone!" Spyro nearly shouted. "You were not brave enough to go in there yourself, then you found someone else to go into your place! Of course! Why would you risk your fur getting in the cave of an owlbear when you can just convince a purple dragon to go in there for you and let _him_ be mauled to death!"

Spyro was screaming now, and the other apes continued to look at him as he advanced against them, and maybe it was the fact that Spyro was a dragon coupled with the hatred on his expression, but all of them seemed to be genuinely afraid of the purple dragon.

"That story of 'initiation' was just an excuse to make me go in there!" Spyro shouted in outrage. "You just wanted me to get in there to do something for you since you didn't have the guts to do it yourself! And to think that people actually think you are cool! That _I_ thought you were cool! You. Filthy. Liar!" Spyro shouted, a shout that almost sounded like a roar, and it echoed all around the forest.

The sound of his voice continued to resound into the forest around them, and Spyro was standing there, panting after his small tirade, and he continued to look at the apes, who were all gathered in there, looking at him in fear. None of them noticed that Spyro's tirade had also echoed inside of the cave that he had just came out of.

At least not until they heard a loud bellowing sound coming from the cave.

The apes and dragon all froze when they heard it, and Spyro slowly turned his head to look at the cave, and the sounds of something coming could be clearly heard.

They all watched as a great creature emerged from the cave, and stood in two legs. Its big eyes staring at them as none of them dared to move. After a few moments, that felt like hours, he creature opened its beak and let out a guttural, roar like sound that denoted how much angry it actually was.

A small fact about owlbears: they are exclusively nocturnal creatures, and there is absolutely nothing, _nothing_ , that they hate more than when someone awakes them from their slumber in the middle of the day.

That owlbear had been awoke in the middle of the day by the angry shouting of a young, outraged purple dragon.

As you could expect and guess, it was absolutely furious, and ready to take this anger in something…

"Oh, crap." Spyro and Zeggor said at the same time.


End file.
